Living Out Of School Club
by InRainville
Summary: The Club moves on after the events of the anime. Eventual Kurumi/Yuri, maybe Miki/Yuki.
1. The Behemoth

"Here."

Kurumi looked behind her, back into the book store. She'd been standing guard at the entrance, shovel at the ready, eyes sweeping the parking lot for signs of Them while the rest of the Club looked through the shop.

Miki was holding out a white paperback book with plain writing, and a shotgun and machete crossed on the front cover. "The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection From The Living Undead," Kurumi read aloud. "By Max Brooks. Huh." She reached out and took the book from Miki, and started to page through it. "Is this a joke, or...?"

"I haven't read all of it, but it looks real to me. I don't know how useful it'll be, but it does recommend the shovel very highly as an offensive weapon..."

"Sold!" Kurumi would have yelled it aloud in the old days; now she merely whispered it intensely. "I didn't know book stores actually had useful things like this inside."

"Of course they do," said Yuri, walking out with an arm full of reference books. "Medicine, cooking, gardening, home repair... everything we need to do after you use your shovel."

"Then load up all your treasures into... The Behemoth!" Kurumi said, gesturing exaggeratedly at the Fjord Excursion they'd liberated from a dealership a few days ago. Kurumi had dearly loved driving Megu-nee's little Tini Cooper, but after a few days on the road it became abundantly clear it couldn't carry the four of them and their gear. Kurumi had read that the ludicrously oversized American cars were inferior to Japanese cars, but for these times it was perfect - a virtual tank, with enough power to drive through swarms of Them, enough room inside for everyone to stretch out and sleep, and enough space even after that to hold a mountain of supplies.

Kurumi's only regret was that she hadn't had time to style it properly, like the cars in Fury Road.

Miki sighed, while Yuri shook her head. "We were all very impressed by the car the first ten times you pointed it out, Kurumi, but perhaps we can give that a rest now."

Kurumi shrugged as she opened up the cargo doors and helped Yuri load the books in. "I just think it deserves recognition..."

Yuki called out from the store. "Can someone help me? I think I dropped some books behind me." Yuki emerged from the entrance into the parking lot, a handful of stuffed animals balanced on an enormous load of manga volumes she was just barely holding on to. Yuri looked up from storing her books away and shook her head firmly. "I told you only a few volumes, Yuki-chan."

"But, but I read everything else in the Behemoth already," Yuki whined, while Kurumi gave a little nod of satisfaction upon hearing of The Behemoth. "And all the driving has gotten sooo boooring now that you guys won't sing songs with me anymore."

Yuri shook her head, and her finger. "It won't be too much longer, and there's no reason to make the back of the car so messy with all of your books. Let's throw out what you don't want to read, and just pick ten or so... that'll be enough to keep you busy while we get to where we're driving."

"Ok, ok," Yuki grumbled, as she dived into the back seat of The Behemoth and tossed out an improbable amount of junk, some of which hit Yuri as she climbed in after.

"Um, Kurumi," Miki stammered, walking up behind her, "I meant to ask earlier, but... where are we driving, anyway?"

"Er..." Kurumi paused, caught off guard. The book store had been their destination after the camping store, which was their destination after the grocery store, which was their destination after... after the Randall corporation and the university locations on Megu-nee's map had turned up empty of survivors. They hadn't discussed where to go next, and she hadn't given it much thought, but as the driver, Kurumi was starting to get the impression that it was her responsibility to decide.

"I..." she started, before the almost welcome distraction of one of Them starting a slow shuffle across the parking lot caught her attention. She sighed, and told Miki, "Let's talk about it on the road."

"Come on, ladies," she said more loudly, "Strap in, we're locking up and moving out."

"Yay, Rii-chan's in back with me!" Yuki chimed through a closed door. "Rii-chan, let's read together. You do the voice of the monsters in this one and I'll do the voice of the princess..."

Miki and Kurumi grinned at each other and climbed up into The Behemoth. "Oh, almost forgot," Miki said, strapping herself into the seat, "I picked up some of the entertainment magazines you mentioned. You can take a look later if you want me to drive for a while..."

"Oh," Kurumi said, blushing and looking away as they started back onto the main road. "Thank you. You didn't have to, I only meant that I used to read them..."

"It's fine," said Miki, settling in with a new book, in English again, on her lap. "We could be driving for a while, I suppose, so we better be prepared."

"Of course," Kurumi answered, sliding on a new pair of sunglasses and driving them west towards the highway, and parts unknown. "We're always prepared these days."


	2. Picnic Under the Blue

They slept that night in an empty parking lot at the edge of town; with the lights out in the Behemoth They didn't come near the vehicle. Without asking Kurumi drove north, into the less populated part of Honshu, where she hoped They'd be less numerous.

Even though she'd been raised as a city girl - they all had - getting out into the countryside had some real advantages. The highways were far more open, with fewer wrecked and abandoned cars, and the scenery was much prettier, so much so that they almost fell into a collective trance looking at distant green fields and mountains as the road rushed by.

They stopped for lunch by a particularly prominent hill. Kurumi drove the Behemoth off the road, to the crest of the mound, where they were surrounded by green grass and could see for kilometers in every direction. Yuri broke out a picnic blanket and prepared a ramen lunch on a cook stove while Yuki chased Miki in circles around the hill; Kurumi climbed up on top of the truck and lay back, staring up at the sky, which was filled with gentle cumulus clouds drifting slowly towards a crystalline blue horizon.

"It's ready," Yuri called, handing up a warm bowl and climbing up on top of the Behemoth herself. "Yuki-chan, Miki, the food is ready!" she yelled, cupping her hands around her mouth and shaking her head as the two distant figures kept running down the hill, oblivious.

"Don't worry about it," Kurumi said, slurping down noodles. "They'll be back soon; let's just enjoy the peace and quiet while we can."

"Ok," Yuri nodded, smiling and looking down before daintily staring work on her own noodle bowl. They spent a few minutes in silence, eating, before Yuri spoke up again. "I think... the sky may be bluer out here than in the city."

Kurumi laughed, nodding. "Yeah," she said, putting down her empty bowl and lying back on top of The Behemoth after spending a moment to make sure she could see Miki and Yuki, but not any of Them. "I noticed that back at the school, but it's even more obvious out here. I guess there's no more factories, or cars, or planes dumping pollution into the atmosphere anymore." She paused a moment. "So maybe it's not all good news..."

Yuri put her own bowl down and lay next to her, looking up at the clouds. "I know what you mean. Still, it's nice to see the clouds so white and the sky so blue..." She sighed. "I don't think I can remember the last time we were so relaxed, not having to worry about... anything."

"Rii-san..." Kurumi looked over in concern, and Yuri looked back, smiling, but with tears in her eyes. She reached out and took Kurumi's hand, shaking her head. "It's OK, it's OK. I just... it comes to you all at once sometimes, you know? I'm just happy to be here, right now, with you. Thanks for driving us out here, Ebisuzawa-san. This was a good place to go, you have taken good care of us."

Kurumi looked away, blushing. "It's no problem. Thanks for lunch, Rii-san, it was delicious."

"My pleasure," said Yuri, and they spent a few minutes holding hands, not talking, just looking up at the heavens before Yuki's complaints about cold ramen for lunch brought them back to earth.


	3. Norimitsu Chiba's Last Known Address

Miki took the next shift driving north; she was visibly nervous both learning to drive and to drive a vehicle as big as The Behemoth, but the open highway with no other traffic was a great place to learn. Kurumi rode shotgun and went through the reading material Miki had gotten her at the bookstore while Yuki and Yuri napped in the back.

An hour in to the ride, Miki spoke up. "How's The Zombie Survival Guide?"

Kurumi laughed. "It's actually pretty interesting. I think it was written as a very straight-faced joke, but a lot of the advice is really appropriate for our situation."

"And it says shovels are great?" Miki said, smiling.

"Yeah, it really does say that, Miki!" They both laughed for a moment, and Kurumi continued. "But what's interesting is how much it advises NOT trying to fight Them... zombies, I mean. It says there's so many things that can go wrong, you're almost always better off running away to a safe space, if you can."

"That... always worked for us," Miki nodded.

"Yeah, I think almost by accident we figured out the right things to do. And it might explain why... why there aren't other survivors. Even if you understood what was happening, I think most other people would be conditioned to fight, or to hide, but fighting is too dangerous in the long run, and hiding..."

"Yeah," Miki agreed, softly. "We were very, very lucky with the school, and even so we just barely made it out. If we hadn't found that antidote..."

Kurumi silently rubbed her arm. The cure had left no after-effects of being bitten, as far as she could tell, but the bite mark on her arm still left a scar. "We need another place as good as the school," she said, quietly, almost to herself. "And I think I might have an idea..."

At a mid-afternoon break in the countryside, Kurumi brought them all around the hood of the car where she'd opened up a magazine on a two-page spread of a handsome man standing in a luxurious house.

"This is Norimitsu Chiba..." she began, only to be cut off by Yuki.

"Oh, the actor? He's soooo handsome..."

"Yes, but that's not the point," Kurumi tried to continue, before being cut off again by Miki.

"Oh, is he the reason you wanted me to get these magazines, Kurumi? I know a lot of girls had crushes on him when he was a pop idol, before he was in movies."

Yuri nodded. "Yes, what was that song of his that everybody used to sing? _Gonna dance all night_..."

Yuki and Miki joined in. " _Gonna feel just right, let me take you out of the world_..."

"It's not about how handsome he is, and it's not about the song!" Kurumi yelled, cutting off the singing and sending the other girls into a fit of giggling. "Look at the house!" she said, banging her index finger down behind Chiba.

Yuki looked intently at where Kurumi was pointing. "That couch does look very comfortable for napping, but wouldn't the white leather be hard to keep clean?"

Kurumi clenched her teeth - she'd promised Yuri not to hit Yuki anymore - and tried again. "The house. If you look at the captions, and the article, it's all about how green and sustainable the house is."

"Ooooh!" The other girls chorused, and Kurumi allowed herself a brief smile before continuing.

"He goes on and on about how he wanted to have a ranch house in the mountains, but not have a big ecological footprint. So it's got solar panels, it's got wind generators, it's got batteries and a water system and all this other stuff. And they've got a photo of what it looks like from the outside and they even talk about the area of the country it's in at the front of the article."

"So you want to... go stay at a movie star's house, Kurumi?" Miki asked.

"No, the thing is, I don't think anybody's at the house. The article says he was supposed to be shooting a new movie in Italy when... when They attacked. And he's not married, no girlfriend..."

"Does it say that in the article, Kurumi?" Yuki cut in.

"Yeah, you seem to know a lot about this guy," Miki added.

Kurumi blushed a deep red this time. "I just... I just know that, ok? The point is, we could find it, and live there! It's very far away from any cities, so there wouldn't be a lot of Them around. We'd have power and water and it's a ranch, so we could even raise our own food, in the long run. And the Zombie Survival Guide even says mountains and cold weather are good, because it slows the zombies down... maybe it'll work for Them, too!"

They all stared at the pictures for a moment, silently. "It does sound very nice, Kurumi, but do you really think we can find it? You don't have an address, and it's not like we can look anything up on the Internet..." Yuri trailed off.

"I think we can do it!" Kurumi nodded. "And it'll keep us away from cities, and away from Them. We've been doing ok driving through the countryside, after all, and this would just be more of that until we find the house."

"It makes sense..." Miki said. "But if we're going to wander around out here for much longer, we should fill up on supplies one more time, just so we're totally prepared."

They all looked at each other for a moment, and Yuki gave out a happy shout, running around The Behemoth with arms raised, "Yay! We're going to live at a movie star's house!"


	4. Winding down

Rationally, Miki knew there must be rural towns in Japan, but actually being in one was something of a shock - rural towns seemed like they only existed in American westerns, with pickup trucks and cowboys and horses. Japan was trains and skyscrapers and malls, not... this, not a tiny collection of houses and a single store lined up along a single dirt street so short she could throw a rock from one end to the other.

The single town was definitely weirding her out, but the infected man lying in the middle of the street was a bigger concern at the moment.

It wasn't that he was dangerous - far from it. Not only were they in The Behemoth, and thus totally impervious to Them, but the man was laying down, not even trying to get at them. But laying down was not something they'd ever seen an infected person do. The infected shuffled back and forth, and grabbed, and occasionally knelt down to tear a victim to pieces (Miki shuddered at the memory). And the dead - the truly dead, who didn't turn - lay down motionless, of course. But this man wasn't truly dead, he was just laying in the road, occasionally moving a single arm as if to crawl away, but so weakly and sporadically he never really changed position.

"This is the fifth one we've seen like that," Kurumi broke the silence. "And I haven't seen any of them actually walking around."

"Are they sick?" Yuki asked from the back.

"They're already sick, Yuki," Miki answered. "I don't think they can get sicker."

"Maybe... maybe they're winding down," Yuri spoke up from her position next to Kurumi.

"Yes! That could make sense..." Kurumi said. "In the Zombie Survival Guide, the zombies can keep going almost forever, but we live in the real world. Everything requires energy to move. Maybe if they don't eat, they slow down?" She paused. "Maybe if we wait long enough, they'll just all die out for good, entirely..."

They all sat in silence for a moment. "That would be wonderful," Yuri said, wistfully.

"Yes, but it doesn't change anything here and now, does it?" Miki asked.

Kurumi shook her head. "No, same drill as always. We leave the music player a few hundred meters down the road, then we sneak into the store. I go in first with Shovel-san, and once it's cleared out we get what we need, get back in The Behemoth, and go. Everybody ready?"

"Yes!" the other three chorused, and Yuki readied one of the cheap music players they'd picked up a few weeks back.

The plan went off without a hitch, and Miki was pleased to see that while one or two of Them came out of hiding to shuffle towards the music, the rest of the town - and the store especially - was entirely empty. They rushed through getting the main items on their list and then, still not seeing any of Them, they took some time to browse. She hadn't even realized how long she'd been staring at the store's meager clothes selection when Yuri's voice startled her.

"That's a good idea."

"Aah!" Miki gave a quick start, then apologized, "Sorry, sorry, I was just... spaced out."

"No, this is a good idea," Yuri said, grabbing a set of overalls, then another and another. "If we're going to a ranch, we need actual clothes that we can do work in."

"Oh, overalls are so cute, Rii-san! But..." Yuki paused as she looked at the full-sized overalls Yuri was scooping up. "These are big and baggy and not very attractive..."

Kurumi jumped in and started grabbing overalls in her size, as well as jeans and sweaters. "Cute is no longer the point, Yuki-chan. We can wear cute clothes sometimes, but a lot of the time we've got to work in serious work clothes. And the Zombie Survival Guide - " Miki rolled her eyes at yet another mention of the book " - recommends tight clothing you can easily move in, the better to run away. So jeans are good too."

"But... Kurumi-san, I like my school uniform..." Yuki sounded near tears.

"Yuki-senpai, we graduated, remember? You wouldn't wear your uniform after you left school, would you?" Miki paused, looking at Yuki's eyes, nearly brimming over, and sighed. "Maybe we can wear it sometimes, at night, at the ranch? But if we're cowgirls, working at the ranch, we need to dress like it, ok?"

Yuki sniffed and nodded, and started grabbing clothes herself. Within 10 minutes they'd almost completely cleared the store of anything in their size, with still no sighting of Them. Yuki had found a variety of hats, and was modeling them in front of a mirror before Miki physically dragged her out the car.

Miki climbed in the driver seat, Kurumi riding shotgun. "The article said it was in a clearing near Mt. Iwate," Kurumi said, "So let's start looking."

"Yes!" They all chorused, driving down the road past the slowly fading music player and a lone infected girl, stumbling around it.


	5. Stay

The first few days of searching were nearly idyllic; the countryside was beautiful, the weather was perfect, and they didn't see a single infected person anywhere. Kurumi spent a lot of time trying to see how the mountains around them would line up with the mountains in the magazine photos, and how all that mapped to travel directions along the back roads they found themselves driving on. But for the rest of the club, it was an endless excuse for picnics, hikes, and goofing off in the meadows and woods they drove through.

It was only after the fourth day that the weather began to turn, with cold rain and strong winds turning to sleet higher up in the mountains. Late that evening Kurumi found herself dozing off in the front passenger seat with Miki driving. The sun had almost entirely gone down, putting a stop to their search for the day, and they were headed for what their road atlas claimed was a rest area, fifteen miles down the road. Yuri and Yuki had likewise nodded off in the back seat, leaving Miki as the only one awake. Kurumi had a vague sense of Miki putting a CD in the car's dashboard as she fell asleep to the sound of guitars and an American man singing, but thought nothing of it until she startled awake to Miki almost yelling along with the lyrics, visibly crying and rhythmically slamming her hands into the steering wheel as she drove.

Kurumi didn't move or speak, trying to take it all in at first. She only understood bits and pieces of the song, and Miki's accented singing: "Stay... all you had to do was stay... you lock me out... I let you in..."

"Miki?" She asked quietly. "Is everything ok?"

The effect on Miki was immediate; she instantly reached out to turn off the music and wiped her eyes, then answered. "Sorry, sorry for the music Kurumi. I'm fine. Sorry."

They drove on in silence for a minute, the only sound in the car the rain on the roof and Miki's muffled sniffles. Kurumi glanced back to see if Yuki and Yuri were still sleeping; the noise either hadn't woken them or they were very good at faking it.

Normally she'd let something like this drop, but after everything that had happened, the emotional walls separating her from other people were seriously fractured, if not completely obliterated. Still, the direct approach wasn't what she wanted, either. After a moment, Kurumi asked, "I didn't realize how much you liked American music. First that song in the CD player, and now this. What was it?"

Miki was silent for a few moments, and Kurumi began to think she wasn't going to answer when Miki gave a quiet whisper. "Kei... Kei loved Western music. She talked about getting this CD, but never got around to it. I wanted to..." She stopped, and wiped her eyes.

"So... she liked Western music, and you like American books, right?" Kurumi asked, trying to give Miki a way to steer around talking about Kei. "I've never found them that interesting, but... did you ever want to visit America?"

Miki gave a half-laugh, half-sob that was loud enough that Kurumi thought Yuki or Yuri would wake up, but they kept sleeping. "Yes," she continued. "We both wanted to see America after school, maybe even live there."

"Really? What was the attraction?" Kurumi felt that they were building to something, and even though she wanted to let Miki off the hook, to stop talking about what was obviously a painful subject, she got the sense that Miki wanted, needed to get this out.

"A lot of things... There's more to do, more places to go, more different types of people, a better economy... you can get married..." she almost whispered.

Kurumi laughed. "You can get married in Japan, Miki."

Miki's grip tightened on the steering wheel. "Not... not married like I... like we..."

"Oh... Oh!" Kurumi blushed, not sure what else to say. She was surprised to hear Yuri speak up from the back seat a moment later.

"So you and Kei wanted more than the ceremony? More than just a domestic partner arrangement?"

Miki kept starting ahead at the road, not reacting at all before she sighed and answered. "We... we wanted a life together. I was always happy just to be near her, but she..." Miki sniffed. "She always wanted more. She wanted to live like everybody else, not hidden away... and maybe it was just a pipe dream, but we thought, going to America, for college, maybe working, we could be like anybody else there. That's why we were focused on the music, on the books, so we'd know English well enough."

Yuri reached out from behind Miki and put her hand on her shoulder. "I'm so, so sorry about what happened to your friend... your girlfriend."

"Thank you. I know I'm not the only person to lose somebody, it's just... it comes and goes..."

Yuri squeezed Miki's shoulder. "I know, I know. Everybody's going through it, but that doesn't make it less painful. I..."

"Wait! Hey wait!" Kurumi exclaimed. "That mountain on the right, it looks almost exactly like the photo in the magazine! Turn, turn here!"

To her credit, Miki handled slowing down the huge car and making a sharp right turn onto the unmarked, gravel road perfectly smoothly. They kept moving down the road, which was bumpy and already starting to see overgrowth from local grass... but after a few minutes and a few sharp turns, they ended up in a clearing facing what was clearly the same ranch house as in the magazine, even if it was just barely visible in the fading light.


	6. Home on the Range

There was no evidence of anyone at home, one way or another. The house wasn't damaged, the doors weren't hanging open, but there were no lights, and it wasn't possible to see much past the front of the house in the dim light.

"Are we there yet?" asked Yuki from the back seat, rubbing her eyes.

"Looks like," Kurumi answered, leaning forward to peer into the darkness. "But it's getting a little too dark to go out there now - we wouldn't be able to see anyone, or anything, coming at us. I think we need to just stay in The Behemoth tonight, and check it out tomorrow when the sun comes up."

Yuri nodded, but Yuki squirmed next to her and kept fidgeting for a few moments before blurting out, "But Kurumi, I have to pee!"

Miki looked back at Kurumi and sighed. "We all probably need to stretch our legs before we hole up for the night. I know there's not much light, but if we do it now, and keep watch as a group, we should be ok."

"Ok, ok," Kurumi grumbled, reaching down beside the seat where she'd stowed Shovel-san. Miki swung The Behemoth around so its headlights were facing a convenient tree, and they turned the high beams on for extra measure. Then they all got out of the car and quickly huddled up for the short walk over to the tree. Yuki and Miki went first, while Yuri and Kurumi stood some distance away, Yuri clutching a bat and constantly turning to look for Them coming from any direction, Kurumi walking a nervous perimeter just outside of the beam from the headlights.

"I can't go with people watching," whined Yuki, and Miki sighed.

"No one's watching you, senpai, we're all looking for Them coming at us. And we couldn't even hear you with the wind and rain if you wouldn't whine so much. So hurry up - " she shoved a roll of toilet paper she'd kept concealed under her jacket at Yuki, then cleaned her hands with small bottle of sanitizing gel " - and finish so we can get back in the car where it's safe and warm."

Miki walked back out to the perimeter to take over for Yuri, who went to take her turn; finally Yuki finished and Kurumi could walk over to the tree herself. Finishing, she stood up and started to relax when a series of high pitched yelps came out of the night, causing Yuki to squeal and all four of them to run for the car as quickly as possible. Only when they'd slammed the doors shut and hit the power locks did they look around and talk.

"What was that?" Yuri asked; Yuki wasn't even speaking, just shivering and clutching Miki, who held her and stroked her hair.

"I think... I think it might have been a dog? Or a wolf? I've never heard one of Them make a noise like that, but I think I've heard it in movies..." Kurumi answered.

"Can... can a dog, or a wolf, get at us in here, Mi-kun?" Yuki whispered, and Miki gave her an extra pat on the head.

"The rabid Saint Bernard in Kujo couldn't get in a little economy car, so I think we're safe from regular animals in The Behemoth, senpai," she started, before seeing the expressions on Kurumi and Yuri's face as they stared at her in disbelief. "What? It's true! I told you I like Western books..."

"I do think we're safe in here, though," Yuri smiled. "Maybe we can just have a quick dinner and go to bed early? Things will look better in the morning."

Kurumi nodded, and climbed into the back of the truck to put together a quick meal of cold snacks and bottled water. After passing out the dried squid and Nummy Sticks, they all whispered "Itadakimasu" and ate in silence before turning off the dome lights in the car and wrapping up in blankets to sleep through the night. Yuki curled up beside Miki while Kurumi reached out to squeeze hands with Yuri, while keeping the other hand wrapped around Shovel-san.

It was an uneasy night; Kurumi found herself waking up periodically to peer out the windows for anything threatening, and noticing, when she did, that Miki and Yuri were occasionally doing the same thing. Nor did dawn bring any immediate relief; rather than the bright sunlight she was hoping for, the clouds and surrounding mountains meant the night changed into a dim grey day with painful slowness. Only when Yuki finally stirred did they all pile out of the car and return to the tree for a repeat of last night's ritual before heading to the ranch house.

There were no cars in the driveway, and no lights in the house; they walked around it before trying any of the doors, and saw nothing. The front door was locked, but a sliding glass door at the rear of the house was not. Inside the house was empty of people or infected; there were many rooms, all reasonably clean and clearly undisturbed for weeks. After searching through the house and finding no one else Miki absentmindedly flipped a switch and was surprised to see the lights come on. They all cheered and hugged; Yuki started pawing through the house's collection of music, movies and games while the rest of them unloaded The Behemoth and started putting groceries away in the kitchen.

The found the infected girl later that afternoon.

They'd started to settle in the house's living room; Yuri had made them a celebratory lunch of canned beef and noodles before Miki suggested exploring the rest of the grounds. She armed herself with a bat while Kurumi took her shovel, leaving the other two behind.

The stone and split rail fence that surrounded the property was in good repair, and although there were clearly pens for animals, there were just as clearly no animals in the pens - in fact, the pens might never have been used, given the ranch's status as a vacation home. They saved the barn for last, pulling open the wide swinging doors and not initially seeing anything concerning. The place smelled of hay and wood and dust, and other than the dimness of the interior, it was actually pleasant to be there. Miki again hunted for a light switch, finally finding one that turned on bare bulbs hanging off the rafters high above.

It was then they saw the girl, laying on her back and wheezing, barely making the moaning noise they'd learned to associate with the infected. As a rule Kurumi tried to block out everything about Them that wasn't related to attack and defense, but she couldn't help but notice the girl's short stature and denim jumper; she looked like a farm girl of no more than 7 or 8.

A name, Satsuki, was embroidered on a yellow star on her chest.

She clearly couldn't get up to attack them; it wasn't even clear that she sensed them, so much as sensed the lights they'd turned on. Kurumi glanced briefly at Miki, who looked back with tears in her eyes and nodded; Kurumi advanced on the girl and whispered - to herself or the girl, she wasn't sure - "Sorry, sorry, sorry SORRY!"

Afterwards they wrapped the girl in a tarp and dragged her to a small rise just outside the fence. They took turns digging over the next hour. Yuri and Yuki came out shortly thereafter to check on them. Even Yuki didn't need to ask what had happened; they disappeared inside the barn and came out a few minutes later with a white cross, which they planted at the head of the grave. A few more minutes work and the girl was thoroughly interred in the ground; they silently knelt and prayed for a short while before walking back to the house.

As they neared the house, Yuki put her arms around Kurumi and hugged her; still walking towards towards the door she asked "This house is ours now, isn't it?"

Kurumi nodded, and they stepped inside.


	7. Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch

They didn't talk for a while after that, just sat on the couches (white, leather, very comfortable just as Yuki had predicted) and watched some of the anime DVDs Yuki had dug out. In fact, they kept watching TV well into the night, Yuri briefly getting up to fix a quick meal which they ate using folding trays in front of the couches.

It was Miki who finally broke the silence, looking out of the living room and asking "So... who gets which bedroom?"

Yuki was up instantly, running towards the rooms, yelling "I pick first! Me, me!" with Miki chasing after, scolding her. Yuri and Kurumi shared an exasperated grin, and went to follow them.

There were three rooms in the house; a master suite almost as big as the living room with a large king-size bed and its own bathroom, as well as two smaller separate bedrooms, one of which had a gorgeous picture window overlooking the mountains, while the other had a complex TV and game setup.

Yuki kept running in and out of each room, loudly debating with herself which one she really wanted. After she had momentarily departed the master suite, Yuri spoke up.

"Kurumi-san, perhaps... you and I should share the big room. That way we ensure Yuki gets some space to herself, she won't drive Miki crazy, and I think the two of us will get along well."

Kurumi laughed, and nodded. "Sounds good to me. You want to break the news to them?"

Yuri nodded, and did the scary intense thing she was capable of to get Yuki and Miki to stop running. "Yuki-chan, why don't you take the room with the TV and the games, and let Miki have the one with the view? She'll like the light for reading and you'll like to play games before going to bed."

Yuki nodded, and almost immediately ran for the bathroom, saying that she wanted to take the first hot bath of the evening. After some exploration and discussion they figured out that the guest bathroom had both a western-style shower and a traditional Japanese hot bath, big enough to fit two at a time. Miki and Yuki went first, both of them only grudgingly getting out of the tub when Kurumi yelled at them. Soon after Yuri and Kurumi were done, and everybody was in pajamas and in bed.

Kurumi wondered if she might have trouble sleeping. She'd walked the entire house to lock the entrances and even put up a security screen across the glass doors that the owner foolishly hadn't been using, so rationally she knew security shouldn't be an issue, she just feared what her subconscious might do late at night. But the bed was softer than any she'd slept in for a long, long time, and she had just enough time to hear Yuri's gentle breathing before falling deep asleep.

Kurumi woke the next morning to actual sunlight hitting the mountain peaks outside, and quiet, still, cold air throughout the house. She looked over at Yuri, who had just pushed herself up on one arm and was rubbing her eyes with the other. "Good morning," she said, smiling at Kurumi, and Kurumi wished her good morning in return.

They spent most of the rest of the day exploring the inside and outside of the house. They found the kitchen had an attached pantry with a substantial stockpile of food, and they found even more food in the form of bags of rice outside in the barn, along with firewood, cooking oil, and other non-perishables. Yuri carefully took inventory in her notebook, while Miki and Kurumi looked for the renewable power and water systems and found everything brand new, with system manuals carefully placed nearby.

After lunch they sat around the table and jointly took stock of their inventory. "It looks like we'll have enough food and supplies to last at least six months," Yuri said, totaling everything up in her books.

Miki grinned. "And that's even before we investigate the surrounding area; I'm sure some of these other farms have plenty of supplies we can use, too."

"Then we better go soon, Mii-kun," Yuki said, sitting down at the table and putting a large framed photo on the table in front of her. "In a few weeks we'll be stuck here until spring."

The other three women were shocked, both because the uncharacteristically blunt outburst from Yuki and because they hadn't even realized she wasn't still glued to the TV.

"What do you mean, Yuki-chan?" asked Yuri.

"I was looking at the photos around the house while you were exploring elsewhere," she answered. "There's a lot of good ones of Chiba with a bunch of different girlfriends, but this one stood out. See," she pointed at the photo, "I didn't realize it at first, but look how much snow there is surrounding the house."

"Wow... it's up past the first floor!" Miki exclaimed. "I wouldn't have even noticed the house was there if you hadn't pointed it out, Yuki-senpai."

Yuki nodded, blushing slightly. "And look at the date... this was last year in early November. There's a similar picture in the hallway that's dated early April. Maybe it's not typical, but we could be snowed in up here for half the year, in the worst case scenario."

The other three looked at each other for a moment. "It's mid-October now..." Kurumi started.

"We can last the winter with what we've got." Yuri said confidently. "The issue isn't food... but I don't know what other supplies we might want."

Kurumi kept staring at the photo. "Chiba-san... in the photo he has a parka, and boots, and snow shoes. We should look for where he kept those, but I'd want spares, and we didn't pick any up from that store."

"Yes," Miki interjected, "And if we're serious about farming long term, we should look at the other farms around here sooner rather than later. If we find animals, we'll want to bring them back here; there's no guarantee that they'll survive the winter otherwise."

They all looked at each other and nodded, then got up to start the mad dash of preparation for winter.


	8. Into the White

The two weeks flew by. Kurumi wasn't sure which was more surprising - how much they got done, or how neatly everything fit together. She and Miki took several trips to surrounding farms and towns, finding no living humans, only barely moving infected (quickly finished off) and lots and lots of supplies. On surrounding farms they found chickens, goats, and even a pair of horses, which they were able to take back to the farm thanks to Miki figuring out how to attach an animal trailer to the back of The Behemoth.

Meanwhile Yuri and Yuki made sure the farm was winterized: that firewood was easily accessible, that doors and windows had strong seals that could be firmly shut, and that shovels and other winter gear would be available when they needed to dig themselves out. Yuki even figured out that a seemingly pointless set of steps ran up to a nearly hidden second story door, which they'd be able to use to get out of the house when the snow was too high for the first floor entrances.

Late one night Yuri totaled up everything in her notebook, staring out the window at a steady rain, certain to herself that they'd done everything they could. The next morning she woke up to snow high enough to cover the bottom of their bedroom windows, and by noon most of the house was dark from drifts piled up outside.

Time began to seriously pass.

Miki was surprised at how quickly the novelty of the ranch wore off, and how quickly they built up new routines, just like back at school. There were different chores here than at school, and the fear of the infected was a very distant thing, but there were still long, endless days they spent together in a few rooms surrounded by an inhospitable outside world.

After some pleading, they gave one day a week to Yuki as a "back-to-school" day where they all dressed in their old uniforms and Yuki got to pick out some ludicrous activity or competition that ate up the whole day: scavenger hunts, board game marathons, athletic competitions. The only real change from the school was the lack of school supplies, so there was much less in the way of drawing, arts and crafts.

The rest of the week they organized around more adult distractions (although Miki found herself looking forward to days when Yuki was in charge.) There were book clubs where they all read and discussed the various works in Chiba's surprisingly large library; there were "classes" where Yuri taught cooking, or Kurumi tried to teach them how to fight with Shovel-san. Miki even tried to teach English, a process that improved dramatically when they figured out they could watch nearly any DVD in the library with English audio and Japanese subtitles. (The actual teaching of English dropped off soon after in favor of just watching movies.)

At night, control of the TV itself became a privilege. They all got to take turns selecting movies or shows to watch from the house library, with predictable results: Yuki liked cartoons, Miki liked dramas, Kurumi preferred action movies, and Yuri... Yuri liked violent gangster movies. The other girls watched as Yuri stared intently at the screen, absentmindedly feeding herself popcorn, not flinching at even the most extreme violence but smiling and repeating memorable lines from Mifune, Takeshi, De Niro and Pacino.

Late one night in early December, after they'd climbed into bed, Kurumi put down the magazine she'd been reading for the seventh time and asked, "Yuri-san, if you don't mind my asking..."

Yuri stopped writing in her notebook and smiled, looking expectantly over at Kurumi.

"Why do you like those violent movies so much? It doesn't seem like... like..."

"...like what I'd enjoy?" Yuri finished.

Kurumi nodded.

Yuri put her pen down in the notebook and closed it. She looked down for a moment, and then over at Kurumi, tucking her hair behind her ear. "It's a fair question... Let me answer it this way. How would you describe me to someone who didn't know me, Kurumi-chan?"

Kurumi thought for a moment. "I... I hadn't thought of it, but it's obvious, isn't it? You're like a mother or a big sister. You're very kind and considerate and competent, and you take care of us and you make our lives better and happier."

Yuri kept smiling, but something about her expression twisted it, made it wistful, almost angry. "Big sister. Yes, that's me, almost all my life. It just... sometimes it's not what I've wanted to be, you know?"

"I... I'm sorry, I didn't know..."

Yuri shook her head. "It's alright. It's something I want to talk about with... with a friend, ok?"

Kurumi smiled and nodded, and Yuri continued. "My parents both worked full time as doctors, and my younger sister was born when I was about six or seven, so right away I had to help out with taking care of her. And I was proud to do it back then. Mai... " a pained expression crossed her face, and Kurumi reached out to squeeze her hand before Yuri kept going. "Mai was such a sweet little girl, and as she got older I took care of her more and more."

"And that was fine, but when I got older, into middle school, things changed. I started to feel like being the big sister wasn't something I was being asked to do, but something I was being told to do. I wanted to have more time to myself, to join clubs and make friends and I couldn't do that because no one else could take care of Mai."

"Also, that's the time I started to get this figure," she said, and Kurumi blushed, looking away from Yuri's nightdress. "It all just came together, my classmates and my teachers and my parents, they all kept acting like I was just the perfect big sister, destined to get married right out of school and be this wonderful wife and mother. Some of the younger male teachers even tried to get close to me, saying they thought I'd make a good wife..."

"Yuri-senpai, I didn't know, I'm so sorry..."

Yuri shook her head. "It's ok, it wasn't that bad... at least, I was able to turn them down without anything getting to serious. It was all just... frustrating, and annoying. And I guess I started to watch the gangster movies because it was exactly what people wouldn't expect from me. I'd imagine that the big sister image was just this act, and beneath that exterior I was this total badass who could do anything..."

"The Balloon Bomb Sorceress!" Kurumi laughed.

"Exactly! I tried to split the difference for the longest time, be one person on the surface and be someone different on the inside."

"Do... you still feel that way?" Kurumi put her hand up to her mouth. "Do we make you feel that way? Make you be the person you don't want to be? I'm so sorry..."

Yuri took Kurumi's hand in both of hers and held it. "No, no, you didn't do anything wrong. When... when They attacked, I took up that role because it was needed, and I wanted to do what I could to help. I don't hate being the big sister. I know I'm actually really good at it. I just don't want to be forced into it, and none of you ever made me feel that way."

"And..." she sighed. "I still like the gangster movies I guess. They taught me how to be _scary_ \- " and just for a moment, she slipped into her intimidating voice, making Kurumi shiver for a second, then laugh " - but I know that's as far as it goes these days. I've come to terms that I'll never be an actual badass."

"Why do you say that? What changed your mind?"

Yuri smiled and tucked her hair behind her ear again. "You did, Kurumi-chan. After seeing you fight I started to realize I'd never be like that, and when... when you were bitten and I was supposed to... I couldn't..."

Kurumi squeezed Yuri's hand again. "Yuri-senpai, you know how glad I am you didn't do anything before Miki got back with the medicine, right? What I asked you, it was unfair..."

Yuri looked down and shook her head. "It wasn't unfair, not at all. If the medicine hadn't come, I'd have endangered Miki and Yuki-chan, and failed my promise to put you at peace. I just... I've just realized that to be the fighter like that, it's not me, it's not in me, and it's never going to be in me. The best thing I can do is be with someone who is a fighter, like you, and support you." She looked up again, right at Kurumi.

"I am a big sister to you and the others, not because I have to be but because I want to be. Because I love all of you. You're my family and you take care of me and I want to take care of you, and if we keep doing that, I think we'll all be ok."

"Yuri..." Kurumi could feel herself tearing up. Before she fully realized what she was doing, she reached over and hugged Yuri, who hugged her back. "Yuri, I do love you. You... you honor me by being my big sister."

They stayed like that for a while, perhaps a minute or two before Kurumi broke off and wiped her eyes. "We should get to sleep... big day tomorrow, who knows what Yuki-chan will have us doing!"

Yuri laughed, nodded, and turned off the light before laying down, leaving them in darkness, with only the faint light of a crescent moon coming in through the skylight above. "Good night, Kurumi-chan," she whispered, and Kurumi reached out for one last, quick hug before sleep took her away.


	9. White Christmas

The infected had taken almost everything from Yuki's life, but every day that went by she felt a deeper appreciation and understanding for what she had left. Before, her parents, friends, and school had been her entire life. Now, looking back, she was starting to see what a blur it had all been - eating and sleeping and classes and social stuff, with never any time to think about what was actually happening, who she was or who the people around her really were.

After a month deep into a deep, snowy winter, she had nothing but time to think. Starting with what had happened at the school, she had begun to understand her own strengths and weaknesses as a permanent part of her, something that she could embrace and work with, rather than just constantly apologize for. She'd never be the strongest woman in the house, but she could run and fight when needed. She'd never be the smartest, but she could figure out things that others had overlooked. She'd never be a leader, but she could lead them in silly, inconsequential stuff that kept them active and happy.

So while Yuri oversaw housekeeping (with assistance from Yuki) and Miki and Kurumi took care of the barn, Yuki carefully planned her weekly activities, even as she outwardly continued to act like a space cadet. It wasn't that she'd become more competent or confident, but that she tried to focus more, checking and double-checking herself to make sure that the important things were taken care of, even if the unimportant things slipped by her.

Which is why the Christmas plans came together so smoothly and easily that nobody else even realized it. There was a snow day that ended with them cutting down and bringing home a tree, followed by a crafts day where they decorated the house with whatever small odds and ends they could put together, leaving them with a beautiful display of lights that brought a bit of color into the dark, cold nights. One by one she worked with the other girls to make presents for each other, and on her own, in secret, she snuck out to the tool shed in the barn to try woodcarving.

Sharp knives, hard wood and her own clumsiness led to several poor first attempts and a few cuts (she passed them off as cooking accidents) but eventually she produced three crude-but-recognizable figures of Miki, Yuri, and Kurumi which she painted and lacquered. She then carved figures of Megu-nee, herself, Taromaru (getting better all the time, the face on Taromaru were particularly good) and a school backdrop, all of which she wrapped in boxes and placed under the tree. The visible gifts spurred the others on to finish their own presents, and by the time Christmas Eve rolled around, the house looked almost as good as a pre-infection home might have - hot cocoa, warm sweaters, roaring fire, twinkly lights, and It's A Wonderful Life on TV (as an English lesson, Miki insisted).

Yuri nodded in satisfaction that her housekeeping stood up to Mary Bailey's.

Christmas morning found them snowed in by a particularly strong blizzard; they'd fallen asleep to increasingly strong winds and woken up to near complete darkness and silence; enough snow had built up around the house to almost completely isolate them from what was going on outside. They drowsily made their way to the kitchen, one by one, where Yuri (who'd woken up a bit earlier than the others) made hot chocolate, pancakes with cherry preserves, bacon and eggs. They exchanged presents around the tree in a slow, casual way, with each gift opened one at a time and admired by everyone, followed by a long lazy day of enjoyment.

That evening, after Yuki and Miki turned in early, Yuri asked Kurumi to follow her to their bedroom where she opened up the closet, stood on a step stool and rummaged on a high shelf for two long, thin packages wrapped in cloth. She knelt down and placed both of them on the ground in front of Kurumi before unrolling the covers.

"A wakizashi and naginata," she said, pointing to the short sword sitting in its scabbard and, beside it, a long pole with a long curved blade at the tip. "Respectively, they traditionally used by..."

"Samurai and onna-bugeshi, wives and daughters of samurai," Kurumi answered. "I took the same history classes you did, Yuri, but... where did you get these?! They're beautiful, but..."

"Chiba-san had them displayed in a corner of the room when we took over the house, but I was afraid Yuki-chan would find them and get hurt. I was going to give them to you for dealing with the infected, but there weren't any left, really, so I wasn't sure what to do... and then I realized this was as good a time as any. You've got the whole winter, you can practice in the barn."

Kurumi said nothing, but knelt down in front of the weapons, gingerly picking up the sword and unsheathing it just enough to see the coloring of the blade before closing it again. "Yuri, I don't know what to say..."

Yuri reached out and took Kurumi's hand, silencing her. "We each have our roles to play, Kurumi-chan. If I'm the home maker, you're the warrior. Shovel-san is well and good, but after all we've been through, you deserve something more capable. I don't know if you've thought this far ahead, but in the spring and summer you'll have to go out with the animals while they graze. So you should have some protection, and some time to really learn how to use it."

Kurumi's mouth was agape. Yuri smiled and continued. "Say you'll accept these and use them to keep protecting us all, Ebisuzawa-san," she said, and gave a small bow.

"Yuri, of course, it's... thank you, I..." and then Yuri was reaching across the weapons, hugging her tightly. Kurumi felt herself tear up briefly. "I don't know if I'm worthy, Yuri-senpai, of these blades or of the trust you've placed in me. But I swear... I swear I will always do my best to be worthy."

Yuri pulled back and smiled at her. "You already are, Kurumi-chan. Come on, let's go to bed. You can start practicing in the morning," she said, taking Kurumi's hand and leading them to warmth, and sleep.


	10. Are We In A Relationship?

Time began to seriously drag after New Year's came and went. Although they'd been spending time in small, enclosed areas for more than half a year, there'd always been some external change to break the monotony, even beyond the infected: hot summer days, cool fall storms, driving around in The Behemoth and fall turning into winter, followed by the holidays.

But now there were three to four months before the snow would melt, with little in the way of distraction. (Yuki made the best effort she could for Valentine's Day, but between Miki's melancholy for Kei and the nagging worry that there were literally the last people on earth, it was hard to get excited.)

Kurumi found distraction in working out with her new weapons, finding an affinity with them she'd never expected. She set up a practice space in the barn and set up a wooden training dummy, and followed the instructions from a martial arts book Chiba-san had lying around the house. Dark early mornings and late nights after dinner found her wrapping herself in a blanket to quickly run the shoveled path between the house and the barn, then spending hours working on basic forms, followed by more free-flowing attacks on the dummy. The naginata pole was particularly her favorite once she learned how to twirl it from one arm to another, leading to a constant whirl of activity that she could turn into a sudden chopping attack whenever she choose.

One by one the other girls took to watching her sessions intermittently for entertainment, and one by one they started to ask for training. None of them developed the aptitude with the blades that she had, but everyone started to feel greater confidence from knowing that they could be used, in an emergency. Even Yuki-chan reached a point where she could be relied on not to harm herself given a sword... although there had been some close calls for both her and Kurumi reaching that point.

The sessions with Yuri were becoming... intense, though. Yuri had some degree of natural talent, but she was tentative with the blades, never latching on to the weapons quite the way she should. Kurumi found herself stepping close behind Yuri, helping her adjust her stance and her grip. She could feel Yuri becoming more confident and focused when they stood together, but she also became more aware of other things - the sweat the two of them built up after an hour of continuous practice, the warmth of Yuri's skin rubbing against hers, the smell of the other woman's sweat mixed up with her soap and shampoo... Afterwards, Kurumi wasn't entirely sure whether it was just the exertion of practice that was making her heart pound in her chest.

Things were complicated even further by Yuri doing little favors for Kurumi. Yuri mothered them all, as far as cooking and cleaning, but Kurumi began to find her clothes for each day especially laid out for her when she woke, and her breakfast often had extra attention paid to it in the forms of eggs, bacon and pancakes turned into a happy face, or a specially designed bento lunch. When she asked about it, Yuri shrugged, smiled, and said that it was thanks for the extra training sessions, and it was just as easy for her to do some extra things for Kurumi, since they were sharing a bedroom.

It didn't explain the odd sense that Kurumi had that Yuri was looking at her extra attentively, when she thought no one else was looking.

So late one night in March, after they'd both bathed post-workout and were in bed reading, Kurumi looked up at the ceiling, sighed and asked the question.

"Rii-san... are we... are we in a relationship?"

Yuri didn't look over at her, but did put her book down and tucked her hair behind her ear. "Yes, I think we are," she said, almost too softly to hear.

Kurumi was stunned to hear the admission out loud, even though she had half suspected what Yuri would say. She didn't say anything for nearly a minute, and neither did Yuri, until they both started at the same time, cutting each other off.

"I didn't..."

"What I meant..."

Yuri blushed and looked away, while Kurumi couldn't help but smile. "It's ok, you go first. I'm not... I'm surprised, but I want to hear more."

Yuri looked at her shyly, and continued. "I... I'm sorry, maybe I should have been more clear up front, or maybe I shouldn't have brought it up. It's just... do you remember when we had that conversation about me not being a fighter, but more of a big sister, or a mom?"

Kurumi nodded.

"Well... I started thinking about what that meant, given where we are, what's going on. There's part of me that's never wanted to be settled with someone... with a man, just because I'm maternal and nurturing. But there's part of me that responds to strength, and protection, and wants to be with someone who will fight when needed. And being near you over the past few months, I realized: you're everything I want from a partner, without any of the things I thought I'd be forced to accept."

"And... I can't deny part of me is thinking about this because there are only three other people left in my life. But I also can't deny that I care about you very, very much, and it's just getting stronger and stronger over time. You took care of me, of all of us, at the school, and when you came back after getting bitten, I just... that may have been the happiest I've ever been in my life. We've just grown closer since we've moved here, and training with you, being close to you, learning from you and taking care of you in return, it's... exciting, it's thrilling for me, in a way I've never felt."

"So I don't know what you feel, or what you want, and if you think I'm being too forward here I can back off. But you make me happy, Kurumi-chan... Kurumi... and I want to show how much that means to me... how much you mean to me, however I can. However much you're comfortable with." She blushed and looked away again.

Kurumi stared ahead for a few seconds, then looked over at Yuri and took her hand. "Rii-san, I'm... I'm not against it, it's just nothing I'd ever considered before. I mean, I'm pretty sure I like guys - "

"I know, I know, I just - " Kurumi shook her head, cutting Yuri off.

"I do like guys, but I just never even thought about liking women. It's taking me a while to get my head around it, but..."

"But?"

"But I do... feel something when we're close. Something physical, more than the crushes I used to have on boys at school. It's just... I'm trying to think if I can see myself being closer... being more than.. what we are now."

Yuri took both of Kurumi's hands in hers, and moved closer, looking right into her eyes. "Well, I was thinking and... let me ask you something. You had a crush on Chiba-san, right? The movie star who owned this house?"

Now Kurumi blushed, and nodded. "It was a long time ago, but yeah, I did..."

"So think of it this way. Suppose he shows up tomorrow; supposed he brings cars and food and people, and we can go back to something like a normal life, before They showed up. Would... would you leave us for that, Kurumi?"

Kurumi shook her head instantly. "No, no way! You're all my family now, I'm not getting separated from you ever again. If I left, I'd bring you all with me, and we'd find a way to stay together, no matter what. I... I need you, now."

Yuri squeezed Kurumi's hands and held them up to her chest. "That's the way I feel too! And if you feel that way... doesn't it make sense to become closer, if that's how we feel? If we're going to be together forever, can't we... shouldn't we be... together?"

Kurumi felt warmth in her chest, and tears in her eyes. "I... I'd like that, Yuri. I'd really like that, I'm just... afraid, it's not something I..."

And she stopped, because she could suddenly feel Yuri's lips on hers, warm and firm and just a little wet. It wasn't her first kiss, but it was the first kiss she'd ever had with real passion behind it, no hesitancy or nervousness.

She had no idea how long it lasted, but felt a stab of loss the instant it ended. "Can we... do you want more?" Yuri whispered, looking away.

Kurumi nodded, then realized Yuri wasn't actually looking at her. "Yeah... yes, please. I want more."

Yuri lay down beside her, pulling her down on the bed and close to her, and they began to kiss again. The kiss was wonderful and nearly all-consuming, but a small part of Kurumi couldn't help notice where her hands fell on Yuri's back and hip, mere inches away from her generous curves. She shivered, for the first time thinking of Yuri's body not as an object of curiosity or jealousy, but as something that was, in a way, hers, to be opened and explored and treasured. She let her hand slip a few inches to rest lightly on Yuri's breast, and within a moment Yuri had placed her own hand on top of it, pulling Kurumi's hand closer and looking at her, smiling, encouraging.

Kurumi's heart was shuddering in her chest and little shivering aftershocks periodically ran down her spine; she felt warmth and wetness growing between her legs. She took a deep breath, looked in Yuri's eyes, and asked "Can we... can we stop for tonight?"

Yuri's face registered surprise and she started to apologize before being cut off by Kurumi. "No, it's fine, it's fine, it's... it's a lot to take in all at once. I want this, I just want... to take it slow, fully appreciate everything that's happening. Is that... is that ok?"

Yuri didn't answer, but smiled and leaned across to kiss her hard and fast. Kurumi kissed her back, but after a few moments Yuri rolled over, grabbing Kurumi's arm and curling into her, leaving Kurumi as the outside spoon and the two of them huddled together under the covers, with only the occasional gust of wind outside making a rattling noise as snow got blown into window panes.

It took a long time for Kurumi to fall asleep that evening, but neither of them moved from their positions, afraid to disturb the other. Finally, just as she was falling asleep, Kurumi chuckled lightly to herself, realizing that an endless procession of long, cold, dark nights before spring had suddenly become far too short a time.


	11. On a gray spring day

Spring came, but it was a gray, wet spring, where the world surrounding the ranch turned into a sea of mud as the snow washed away. It would be a few months before green actually came to the mountain in force.

Kurumi didn't care. For her, and Yuri, everything was new and glorious.

At night, their explorations became more adventurous and intense. From books and other girls at school, Kurumi had gotten the idea that sex was a binary thing - you were either having it or you weren't, and it was really just the one act. With Yuri, at least, sex wasn't on/off, but a whole world, with paths branching off in a dozen different directions, and no end to what they could do or where they could go.

And during the day, every little interaction became heightened by the fact that she and Yuri were together - not just that they were complementing and supporting each other, but that she was doing it for someone she loved, and someone who loved her back. The thoughts of Yuri even kept the grief at bay when random memories of lost family and friends surfaced.

So as she and Miki started to venture outside of the ranch with the animals to graze on the little that was available, even a flat, muddy universe became mere background noise as every thought turned back to Yuri.

Which is why she almost missed the infected dog late one afternoon, coming at them down the mountain.

She hadn't been entirely oblivious to the outside world - she'd been looking up at some of the higher meadows to find their next grazing spot, but had drifted off into a daydream about picnicking there with Yuri, surrounded by spring flowers and deep blue sky...

...when she heard Miki scream, and saw the goats scatter, and something low and dark and snarling come racing toward her.

The horse reared, knocking her off; fortunately her first reaction had been to grab the naginata from the saddle, and she fell on her back in the soft mud with the pole landing only a meter or so away from her. She heard a snarl, and rolled toward the weapon blindly, hoping she was moving herself to a better tactical position but not really knowing which direction she was headed in.

She chose right, and found herself standing, holding the pole with both hands between her and the attacking animal. Her training made her want to lift the pole up to build up a good spin and send the blade back down with a killing stroke, but the thing - she was starting to get the idea it was some sort of dog, from the yelps and snarls, but couldn't focus long enough to tell exactly what it was - kept snapping at her feet, meaning she had to use the bottom of the pole to knock it back as she retreated through the mud.

Finally one random lucky hit knocked it back a few meters, and she was able to change position to at least get the naginata in a spear-like position - the next time it charged she stabbed right at it, nearly impaling it lengthwise on the blade.

She'd withdrawn the weapon and was stabbing the thing again, just to be sure, when Miki came up running to her side, sword drawn, although not an a way that made Kurumi feel she'd have done much good with it. "Kurumi-chan, are you ok? Did it bite you? Are you..."

Kurumi shook her head, then leaned against the pole to wipe her brow. "I'm fine, I'm ok. Just surprised, got the wind knocked out of me when I hit the ground. What was that anyway..."

And then Miki was hugging her tightly from the side, almost sobbing. "Kurumi-chan, Kurumi-chan, I'm so sorry, I should have been paying more attention, I forgot to look out for you, I should have known you weren't going to be focused today of all days..."

"Wait! Wait, wait, I'm ok, I'm ok, Mii-kun!" she said, taking Miki's shoulders and holding her back for a moment. "I'm fine, I was just daydreaming for a moment, it was my fault. Why would you..."

Miki looked shocked for a moment, then wiped at her eyes with the back of her hand and shook her head. "I'm... I'm sorry, Kurumi-chan, I just assumed you were out of it because of the day..."

"What about the day? What's today? Just March 17th, right? I... oh..." she said, and all of the sudden she remembered what had happened to her last year on March 17th... what had happened to all of them, as they turned from average schoolgirls to devastated survivors. "The anniversary of..."

Miki nodded. "Of... of the infection, yeah. I'd been so wrapped up in my own thoughts I wasn't paying enough attention to other things, but I've noticed you've been extra out of it lately. I thought you and Yuri must be focused on everything that happened a year ago... I know it was worse for you than it was for me at the mall..."

"Yeah, it was... but that's not why I was... I was thinking..." she ground to a halt, realizing that she had no idea what to say to the others about her relationship with Yuri, and how horrible it would be to present it as simple good news on today of all days. She reached out and hugged Miki to her, and felt her relax for a moment.

"I'm ok, we're both ok, Mii-kun," she said. "Let's... let's talk later about this. For now we can just gather the animals and head back."

She felt Miki nod against her shoulder, and they both turned towards the animal for a moment, looking it over. "It's definitely infected... maybe a wild dog or something?" Miki asked. "It's definitely bigger than poor Taromaru, but not as big as a wolf, I think..."

Kurumi poked it again with her blade, and shuddered. "I don't know, it's just... upsetting that the virus is still running around out there, somewhere," she said. "We'll... I'll have to do a better job of looking out for it in the future." And they turned back to the animals, rounding them up and moving them down the mountain, back to the ranch.


	12. Huddling

The attack was all anyone talked about at the dinner table that night, despite Kurumi and, eventually, Miki trying to downplay the threat. Kurumi supposed she couldn't blame Yuri and Yuki; she and Miki had seen it in person, and knew it wasn't that big a deal compared to what they'd been through in the past, but the other two were only hearing about it secondhand, their minds conjuring up all manner of worry about a threat they thought they'd started to hope they'd left far behind.

She and Miki promised they'd be more on alert, and take more care in where they grazed. It seemed to mollify Yuki somewhat, but Yuri was still talking about it as they climbed into bed that night.

"Do you think it's an infected human still out there? Or is it just going from animal to animal? By and large there didn't seem to be many infected animals, so..."

"Yuri... Yuri, please relax. Stop," she said, reaching out to hug Yuri and then holding her shoulders at arms length so she could look directly into her eyes. "It wasn't that big a deal... and you already helped me by giving me those weapons. It was way easier to handle that thing with the naginata than with Shovel-san, and I'll be more alert in the future. Really, it's ok."

Yuri looked down, but nodded, and reached out for another hug. "I... I'm just getting used to the idea of having to worry about you again, about Them... especially now that we're..."

Kurumi kissed her cheek and hugged her back extra hard. "I know, I know, I'm sorry about that. But I'm ok, and I'll be ok in the future. I promise." She felt Yuri nod again and stroked the other woman's long hair. "Besides, there's another thing I wanted to talk to you about..."

Yuri sat back, wiped her eyes, and looked back at Kurumi expectantly.

"So part of the issue today was that... I was thinking about you, and Miki thought that I was preoccupied with the anniversary of the infection."

Yuri's eyes widened. "I... I'd totally forgotten. An entire year... and I hadn't been thinking of it because I was thinking of us. How could I..."

Kurumi grabbed Yuri's hand and held it tightly. "No, don't blame yourself. What we have is _good_. What we have is _life_. There's nothing wrong with focusing on what makes us happy and doing our best to move on from what's happened."

Yuri's mouth had fallen open, but she closed it again and nodded. "Still, we should be sensitive to what Yuki-chan and Mii-kun are going through..."

"Yes, but I'm more concerned about whether, or how, we tell them about... us." Kurumi paused, and continued. "There's only four of us here, and if two of us are... changing how we feel about each other, changing what we are two each other, I think they deserve to know. It's just..."

"Mii-kun, seeing us together, I don't know how she'll react. After what she said about her girlfriend, to see two other people together when she can't be with the person she loved..."

Kurumi nodded. "But hiding it from her, I don't know if that's any better. The longer we hide it from her, the more impact it will have. I think we just have to be honest and up front. We don't have to rub it in her face, but..."

Yuri sighed. "And Yuki-chan, I don't even know if she'll understand, she's been so sheltered in some ways."

"She survived the end of the world, Yuri. I think she's capable of understanding lesbians."

Yuri laughed, once, loudly, and immediately covered her mouth, surprised that she was still capable of that kind of feeling. She shook her head and smiled. "Ok. What we're telling them isn't _bad_ news, after all. We should probably do it individually, though - you tell Mii-kun and I'll tell Yuki-chan, when the time is right."

Kurumi reached out to hug Yuri again, and they held each other for a moment before breaking to turn out the light.

Yuki had been watching a children's anime in her room, sitting up with a blanket wrapped around herself, slightly rocking back and forth, when she heard Yuri's bark of laughter from down the hall. She stood up, blanket still draped around her shoulders, and walked down the hall, pausing briefly at the entrance to the master suite where she briefly glimpsed Kurumi and Miki hugging. She continued down the hall to Miki's room, where Miki was sitting up in bed, reading in a single pool of light that fell around her shoulders.

"Yuki-senpai? Is something the matter?"

Yuki said nothing, but walked over and sat on the foot of the bed. Miki closed her book and sat next to her; noticing she was shivering slightly she put her arm around Yuki.

"I'm worried about you, Mii-kun," Yuki said quietly.

"Senpai, it's ok! You heard what Kurumi-chan said, and it didn't get anywhere near me..."

"That's... that's not the point!" Yuki turned towards Miki and buried her face in the shoulder of the taller woman. "I'm your... I thought we were past this. I thought we'd gotten away from all of this! I thought I'd sent them all away and we could just live our lives and they wouldn't bother us again... and now you're going out there all the time and it's not just Kurumi-chan that's in danger now, it's you and you're not as good as her with the swords and something could happen to you and I'm too weak and clumsy to help and I'm not even out there anyway..." she started sobbing.

Miki put her arms around Yuki and kissed the top of her head. "Senpai, senpai, it's ok, it's alright," she whispered, over and over, for three, five minutes, however long it took for Yuki to stop crying and her shoulders to stop shaking.

"Senpai..." she sighed. "Senpai, you know I can't promise everything will be ok, not after everything that we've been through. Things _are_ better here, and safer, and I don't think this will happen all the time... but I can't guarantee that nothing bad will ever happen to any of us." She gently reached down to touch Yuki's face and guide it so they had eye contact.

"What I can tell you is that... I don't regret a minute of my life since we met, Yuki-senpai. You kept me safe, but more important than that, you kept me happy to be alive. And I don't know what will happen, but I do know that I want to be with you, living life with you, as long as I can. Is that ok, Yuki-senpai? Can we just keep living, and just do our best to keep living?"

Yuki sniffed, nodded, and reached up to hug Miki. After a moment, she said, muffled by the hug, "But you should tell Kurumi to give you the big stick with the sword on it. She's so good, she can use the short sword."

Miki chuckled, kissed Yuki on top of the head again, and shook her head. "It's ok, we'll figure it out. It's late now, and we need sleep. Do you want to sleep in here tonight, senpai?"

Yuki nodded, and climbed under the covers even before Miki could get there; she shut off the lights and looked at Yuki laying on her side in the moonlight, facing her expectantly. She reached out and took Yuki's hand, squeezed it, and they were both asleep in minutes.


	13. We Are in a Relationship

They decided to break the news a few days later, just after breakfast on a sunny morning that looked like it might actually be warm for once. There were no words, just a significant look when Yuki and Miki had left the room.

The opportunity came first for Yuri, standing over the kitchen counter, chopping carrots while Yuki kneaded bread.

"Yuki-chan..." Yuri began, taking advantage of a temporary break in Yuki's chatter. "Do you... do you remember when we were back at school, pretending to have a camping trip?"

"Sure!" Yuki smiled wistfully. "We all were in the tent, and Megu-nee came to check on us... well, I mean, I pretended she did." Her smile flickered, but she continued. "And we told scary stories, and talked about boys..."

"Yes, we did. It's a good memory for me too, Yuki-chan." Yuri paused, and continued. "We... haven't really seen any boys since we left school..."

Yuki nodded. "We haven't seen _anybody_ else, Rii-san! It could be that we're the only people left in Japan! Which would be sad, but at least we have each other."

Yuri nodded, and waited a moment, and plowed ahead. "Yes, it's just us left right now. But... sometimes I still think about having a relationship, you know. And sometimes... people... people fall in love with someone they might not otherwise..." She stopped, not sure how to continue in the face of Yuki's quizzical stare.

Then, suddenly, Yuki smiled. "Well, at least you and Kurumi-chan are together!" She turned back to her bread and continued kneading.

Yuri felt shocked, but kept her expression neutral and turned back to her potatoes. After a few moments, she asked, "Why... why do you think Kurumi-chan and I are..."

Yuki smiled again, and laughed. "Well, you two are just like boyfriend and girlfriend! Except, you know, girlfriend and girlfriend. You're with each other all the time when we're not working, or you're staring at each other, and you look into each other's eyes, and hug, and I've seen you kissing when you think we're not looking." She stopped, and looked up at Yuri in surprise. "Oh, Rii-san, I'm sorry! Were you trying to keep it a secret? I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to spoil it, I hope I haven't ruined it for you! I..."

Yuri shook her head vigorously.

"No, no, it's ok Yuki-chan. I was... wondering how to tell you, so it's easier now that you know. I just wasn't sure if you would have problems or questions with... with two women being together like that."

Now it was Yuki's turn to shake her head. "No, it's fine with me. Boys were..." she paused, and lowered her voice. "Boys were... scary to me, really. I thought some of them were cute, but I wasn't sure how... what they wanted, and it was scary to think of... of doing something more than kissing, even though I..." She shook her head again, and smiled. "Anyway, girls are a lot less scary. My friends teased me sometimes, but I always felt safe with them, just like I feel safe with you. And... it's not like there are any boys left, these days..."

Yuri nodded, and stepped beside Yuki to gently embrace her. "I know, Yuki-chan. Thank you for... for accepting us."

Yuki hugged her back, and smiled up at her. "Of course, Rii-san! I'm happy as long as you two are happy!" She turned back to her bread, and Yuri began to chop carrots again. A few minutes passed, and Yuki spoke once more.

"Rii-san... does Mii-kun know? About you and Kurumi-chan?"

"Not yet, but Kurumi-chan is telling her today."

"Oh." Yuki kept kneading, and spoke up again. "Is... is it nice being... having a girlfriend, Rii-san? I mean, a real girlfriend?"

Yuri answered instantly. "When it's someone who loves you, and who you love back, it's the best thing in the world, Yuki-chan."

"Oh." Yuri expected Yuki to say more, but Yuki remained silent as she fashioned the dough into loaves, placed them in baking pans, and set them to bake in the oven before leaving the kitchen. Yuri turned to the next part of her casserole, and wondered how Kurumi was doing...

Kurumi waited until Miki was eating to broach the subject; she couldn't easily get away when she was seated and halfway into her bento box.

"Miki-chan... I... we thought that you should know that... Yuri-san and I are... together." She couldn't bring herself to look Miki in the eye while saying this, but she didn't know how to lead up to the revelation without hurting Miki further.

Miki stopped chewing for a moment, looking at Kurumi, then looked away and continued eating for another minute without speaking. Finally she stopped, took a drink from her canteen, and spoke, again without looking at Kurumi.

"Together, as in... romantic? Girlfriends? Kissing? Sex?"

Kurumi blushed deeper than she ever had in her life; her ears felt like they were on fire. "Yes. I mean, we are..."

"I'm sorry, that was rude. I shouldn't have pushed like that, I wasn't thinking. Forgive me, Kurumi-chan."

"It's... it's ok. I mean..."

"I didn't think you were interested in girls like that, Kurumi-chan..."

"I didn't know either-"

"...although I guess I'm not surprised by Yuri-senpai..."

"You... what?"

"I don't think it matters now, obviously, but she always deflected the topic whenever you started discussing boys, and she was always very friendly, more physical than I would have expected. I don't think she was ever attracted to me, but I'm not surprised she was... is... attracted to you."

"Miki-chan, I..."

"Maybe the only other lesbian on earth and she goes after a straight girl instead of me." Miki barked out a laugh, then another, and then started silently sobbing, tears running down her cheeks.

Kurumi wasn't sure what to do, but she gingerly approached Miki and gently embraced her; Miki grabbed her back immediately, intensely, and held her, crying, for a few moments before stopping, wiping her eyes and looking up at Kurumi.

"Kurumi... Kurumi-senpai, I'm so sorry. I... I didn't mean to say those rude things, I didn't mean to break down like that, it's just... it's just a lot to take in."

"It's ok, it's ok..."

"Heaven knows we all deserve any happiness we can get, and you're both wonderful people. If you're happy, I'm happy, Kurumi-senpai. Kei and I... we didn't have long together, but I wouldn't have missed a moment of it. If you have half of that, then..." she stopped and sobbed softly again. Kurumi held her until she could start speaking again.

"I'm sorry, it's selfish. I do wonder if I'll ever have that again..."

"Well..." Kurumi chuckled to herself. "There's always Yuki-chan..."

Miki shook her head and wiped her eyes. "She's such a child, Kurumi-chan. I don't think she understands relationships hardly at all, and something like this... I mean, I love her, but..."

"Miki-chan, I was joking!" Kurumi said, gently elbowing her. "Yuri and I had a deal, I was supposed to tell you today, and she's going to tell Yuki-chan. I don't envy her explaining that!"

Miki gave a half smile, and shook her head again. "Of course."

Kurumi stood up and walked back towards the animals, calling over her shoulder "Come on, let's get them up the valley a little more before it gets too late."

Miki nodded, and wiped her eyes once more before putting her lunch things away. Before heading towards Kurumi she looked back down the valley, where sun cutting through the clouds reminded her of Yuki sitting and reading at her desk back at school... and how for one moment, she'd seen Kei in Yuki's place. She shook her head one more time, and walked back to Kurumi.


	14. Plain and Simple

Life happened. Perhaps more life happened to those around her than to Miki herself, but she could see it happening, feel it happening, as spring moved into summer and summer progressed to fall. The goats they'd taken care of all winter had a few kids, and watching the birthing process - even helping out, when one of the mother goats was having difficulty - was a beautiful, disgusting, joyous occasion.

Choosing one of the goats to butcher for meat was merely disgusting, but the summer barbecue they had afterwards was worth it. She wasn't sure what emotions, exactly, she was feeling at the end; stuffed with greasy, delicious meat, more than a little drunk on the beer Kurumi had supplied, sitting in a lawn chair and watching distant storm clouds drift across the valley below in the late evening sunlight, but she knew she'd never forget the moment for the rest of her life.

They revisited the surrounding farm houses as the snow melted and increased their own supplies even further; they figured out how to mount a furrow to a tractor and planted an actual field for Yuri and Yuki to tend, in addition to the substantial vegetable garden they'd already set up.

Work piled up for all of them, in a vicious (or perhaps virtuous?) cycle - Yuri figured out what stockpiles they'd need for the next winter, which meant making the farm bigger, which meant more work to set things up and maintain them, and, as often as not, meant making the farm bigger still. It wasn't that there wasn't a light at the end of the tunnel; she knew she wouldn't starve to death, and every day brought some small victory or accomplishment. But she found herself working sun up to sun down, with only a few hours to spend with her friends before she collapsed into bed and repeated things all over again. In a way, it made things easier - she had little time to brood about Kurumi and Yuri, and her own lack of a love life.

So it was something of a shock when Yuki cornered her in the barn late one summer afternoon.

She'd been checking the animals' feed, making sure it was dry and pest-free. Before that she'd been out all day herding the animals solo - Kurumi had repair work to handle elsewhere - and she still had to make sure doors and gates were closed and walk the perimeter before dinner. Still, her current work offered a few moments of relative ease before finishing up.

"Guess who, Mii-kun!"

She hadn't heard Yuki approach, and her reflexive action on feeling hands on her face, covering her eyes was to spin and lash out... but she held back as soon as she heard Yuki's voice, and realized it was her soft, warm hands.

She sighed. "Yuki-senpai, you're the only one who calls me Mii-kun, so I know it's you."

"Right!" Yuki squealed and hugged her tightly from behind. "I finished my work early, and thought I'd come out and help you."

Miki stepped away for a moment, and rubbed her face with both hands before turning back around. "Ok, thanks Yuki-senpai. Can you go through the bins over on that side of the barn? Just need to make sure the feed isn't wet and you don't see any bugs; as long as the seal on the containers seems tight we're probably ok."

"Ok, Mii-kun!"

Yuki didn't help, exactly - every bin she examined she ended up calling Miki over to double-check - but it was a nice distraction. And afterwards they ended up walking the perimeter hand in hand, Yuki chattering aimlessly, Miki slowly starting to relax, glad for the extra company.

It was just as they were about to start back to the ranch house that Yuki held back, holding on to Miki's hand as she started to walk away, forcing her to turn around and stand face to face with the shorter woman, standing at the edge of the property.

"Mii-kun... I wanted to ask you..." but she stopped, and looked down and away, and said nothing more for a few moments.

"Yes? What is it, senpai?"

Yuki kept looking down, but reached up to tuck her hair behind her ear. "Mii-kun... do you... would you like to... be... be my girlfriend?"

As much as Miki was fixated on her love life, it was surprising she didn't take the meaning more quickly. "Girl friend? We're already friends, senpai..."

Yuki blushed and shook her head, still looking down. "No, not... friends, Mii-kun. _Girlfriends._ Like Rii-san and Kurumi-chan."

As much as anything, she was having trouble understanding that it was Yuki asking the question. "S... senpai, you... you want to be my girlfriend? You like me?"

Yuki looked up, establishing eye contact for the first time. "I love you, Mii-kun. You are so... you are the most important thing to me in the world right now. And I... don't know what it'll be like, if we are... we are lovers, but I love you enough to want to find out. I know it would make me happy and I think I could make you happy. I would... I would very much like to try," she said, ending the speech almost on a small bow.

Miki stepped back, without guidance on what to say. "Yuki... Yuki-senpai, I care about you a lot, but I don't know... I haven't thought about you in that way before..." she swallowed aftr she said it, suddenly aware of the lie she was telling.

Yuki stepped closer, spoke with more energy. "I know you haven't, Mii-kun, I know! That's why I want to show you..." and she stepped forward again, and kissed the other woman, quickly and awkwardly.

Miki was only aware of a few passing sensations - warmth, softness, sweetness - before she pulled back, lifting her hand up to her mouth to wipe at it almost by instinct. "Yuki-senpai, I..."

Yuki stepped forward again, speaking with even more passion. "Mii-kun, I'm sorry, I just wanted to..."

Miki shook her head. "Senpai, I told you, I don't think of you..." and she stopped, actually allowing herself to look at Yuki with fresh eyes. Yuki's hair had grown out, her fashionable braided bob adorned with various ties and hair clips replaced with a simple straight cut. Yuki wasn't any taller than a year ago, but she'd filled out over the winter, both from the simple, hearty meals they'd been cooking and because of the regular exercise she'd been getting with Kurumi. She'd never be curvy, but she unquestionably had a woman's body now, not a girl's. And her uniform was gone, replaced by a plain cotton work shirt and jeans, both of which held to her figure as they should. Even her general expression of happiness and confusion had been replaced by something more serious - longing, a direct and obvious desire to reach out and connect with Miki.

Miki swallowed and started again. "Senpai, I... I care about you, but I don't think... I don't know."

She stepped forward, and hugged Yuki tightly. "I do care about you, I do. I... I'm just not ready for this yet. Give me time." And as quickly as she'd embraced her, she pulled back again, keeping Yuki at arm's length. "Just... give me time. And space. Let me go ahead. I'll... we'll talk later. Soon."

And she turned and walked away, ahead of Yuki, towards the house, ignoring Yuki's calls behind her, going straight to her room and shutting the door and diving on the bed and lost in a swirl of emotions, the only thought at the front of her mind: _What would Kei want me to do?_

She thought for a long time.


	15. The Wolves Howl All Night Long

Summer turned into a dry, cool fall, full of work to do during the day, but also long, twilight evenings where they played and relaxed. Dinner on the patio outside, with liberally-poured bottles of wine and music drifting through the open doors. Complicated European board games played long into the night at the kitchen table, cumulating in yelps of triumph and cries of frustration. And a harvest festival dance, with punch and decorations and strings of lights, set up in the barn by Yuki at the last minute when rain drove them from out doors.

Miki found herself dancing with Yuki most of the night, partially because Yuki kept asking her and partially because it would have been rude - not to mention difficult - to tear Yuri and Kurumi away from each other. After Yuki's confession, Miki had asked her to take it slow, saying she still needed time. And Yuki had been respectful of that, although they'd found themselves together more and more often, regardless - walking together, holding hands, hugging and talking.

So the feeling of Yuki pressed against her, warm and soft and swaying to the slow, gentle music that had been playing all night, was not unfamiliar, or unwelcome. Towards the end of the song, when Yuki lifted her head to look up at her, with a contented expression on her face that Miki couldn't help but mirror, the moment seemed perfect for a kiss...

...when the barking started, and the animals started to panic.

She and Kurumi ran to the barn door, closing it most of the way, but leaving it just open enough to see out. There was nothing much to see in the lighted area immediately outside the door, but just beyond the ring of light, in the shadows, they saw staring red eyes looking back out at them, blinking, running, and staring again from a new location.

Kurumi reached for her naginata, and passed Miki the short sword. "Ok, we can chase them off. I'll go out first, you watch my back..."

"No!" The door slammed shut as Yuri ran into it with her shoulder, then turned back to them, the rough wood of the door catching on the silk fibers of her dress. "That is not how we deal with the infected, Kurumi! We stay where it's safe, and only attack when necessary!"

Kurumi's face showed shock for a moment, and then she rallied. "Yuri... I understand you're worried, but I know what I'm doing... we know what we're doing," she said, looking over at Miki, "And there's animals in the pens they'll get to if we don't act quickly."

Yuri braced herself back against the door, and Yuki ran to join her. "No. You're not going out there in the dead of night with no idea what we're up against. The animals will take care of themselves... or they won't. We've still got animals in here, and even without them we've got enough food to get through the winter."

A moment passed, and Kurumi looked down and shook her head. "Ok, ok, we'll hold back. But I'd like to at least get a better idea of what we're dealing with. Miki-chan and I will go up to the second story and look out through there, is that ok? Meanwhile you and Yuki-chan can make sure the doors and windows are secure."

Yuki reached out to hug Kurumi briefly, tightly, and then they all went off on their tasks. From the loft on the second floor of the barn, Miki and Kurumi could see shapes and hear noises - barks and howls and panicked bleating from the animals left outside - but couldn't really figure out what was going on.

"This... I should have seen this coming," Kurumi said, pacing back and forth, looking out at the darkness again. "We could have set up lights around the fence line, we could have gotten bows and arrows... or even guns..."

Miki shook her head. "We've had no real reason to think this was coming, Kurumi-chan," she said. "And there were always other things to do that had priority. Rii-san is right; making sure we're safe is the most important thing. Everything else we can rebuild. And besides," she paused, making sure she had Kurumi's attention, "you can't blame her for not wanting to see you get hurt again."

Kurumi visibly deflated, and nodded. "I... hadn't been thinking of it from her standpoint. You're right, thank you, Miki-chan. It's... it will just be a very long night, waiting until morning to find out what this is costing us."

Miki put her hand on Kurumi's shoulder. "Look, go down and help Yuri-senpai with the doors and windows. I can handle things up here, and I'll tell you if anything important happens. But the more we keep busy, the faster this night will be over."

Kurumi nodded again, gave Miki a fast hug, then went downstairs. After a few minutes, Yuki came up and joined Miki in the loft, sitting down on a bale of hay and looking worriedly back and forth between the loft door and Miki. "Mii-kun, are you... are things going to be..."

Miki turned and smiled, and sat down next to Yuki. "We're fine, Yuki-senpai. There's not much we can do from in here, but I'm quite positive there's nothing they can do from out there. We'll just wait through the night, and we'll figure out next steps then. Yuri-senpai was right to hold us back. We'll be fine."

Yuki nodded, and leaned against Miki, who put her arm around her and leaned back against the hay. She wasn't sure how long it took - probably just minutes, but perhaps as long as an hour - before she realized Yuki was snoring softly next to her. Miki smiled to herself, and kept watch through the loft door, listening for any truly unusual sounds. At some point she fell asleep herself, and woke up to find Kurumi standing at the loft door looking out, leaning against her upright pole arm, outlined against the dawn light.


	16. The Council

In the morning light, they could see there were no living animals left outside - none of theirs, and none of whatever had attacked the night before. Some had been torn to pieces, some had almost been herded away from the ranch along a long, bloody trail, leading up to the mountains.

They still had no idea what had attacked them, and started to debate at the dinner table that evening.

"I understand why you're worried, Yuri, I really do," Kurumi began. "But we need to at least find out what we're up against. Miki and I can take the horses up into the mountains during daylight; we'll be able to see anything coming a long way in advance, and run away faster than any animal can get us. And if we're going to do it, we need to do it before the winter sets in, which means we've only got a few weeks."

Yuri looked down at her plate silently for a few moments before speaking. "I just don't understand why we need to risk anything, Kurumi. Losing the animals outside the barn was terrible, but what's done is done. Even if... whatever that was comes back, the rest of the animals are in the barn, and we're in the house. We already know they can't get in to either place, and you said yourself there are things we can do to protect ourselves, like set up more lights and start working on arrows... or guns! And with the winter coming, it will probably block them out just as much as it blocks us in. We just _don't need_ to do this."

Kurumi looked over at Miki, and continued. "What we don't know is the _problem_ , Yuri," she said softly. "Miki-chan and I were talking, and we're not sure the barn would hold them off again, because we don't know what we're dealing with. And we don't know that the winter will hold them back, because we don't know what we're dealing with. A lot of the things you're talking about... I thought they were good ideas at the time, but for all I know, more lights would just attract more predators to us."

"It... I think it really will be safer if we go to the threat, rather than it coming to us, Rii-san," Miki spoke up, softly. "Kurumi-chan and I... I know you were worried after the dog attacked us in the spring, but we should be ok if we're paying attention, and we would be without a herd to worry about. We... we can do this."

Yuki leaned over, clutching at Miki's arm. "But... but if we just stay here, everything will be alright, Mii-kun..."

"Yuki-chan, Yuri... I'm not trying to scare you, but think this through. If something really bad is out there, like a horde of the infected, right now we can get back in The Behemoth and drive away. It would be hard to start over, but we could do it. On the other hand, if something very bad attacked when the snow is here, we won't be able to leave. The snow would be too thick to drive through, and I don't think we could make it on foot. It's because I want to protect this place that we need to find out what we're dealing with."

"Fine!" Yuri spit out the word. "Fine! You've already made up your mind to go, so just go!" She stood up, and slammed her palm down on the table. "That's what you do, isn't it? You take these risky, foolish chances because you're bored or want to play at being a hero, and you leave and the rest of us have to wait behind and worry about you and clean up your mess, don't we?"

Yuri was crying now. "Dammit, I thought we were past this! I thought we didn't need to worry about this! How did I let myself fall in love with you if... if I was just going to have to watch you die from the infection all over again..." And she started sobbing, and ran out of the room into their bedroom.

"Rii-san!" Yuki stood, and ran after her; Miki stood halfway up as well, but glanced back at Kurumi, staring glumly at her plate, and sat back down again.

"She'll calm down," Kurumi said quietly. "I know it's hard for her, what I'm asking, and I know why she's scared. But I wouldn't do this on a whim... I mean, I'm doing this because I want to keep _her_ safe too. She'll realize that, when she thinks about it. She has to."

"Y... yeah, she will," Miki answered, quietly, and they finished their meal.

Late that night, Kurumi came to bed, finding Yuri still in her day clothes, sitting up, arms wrapped around her legs. "Yuri... can we talk?"

Yuri waited a few seconds, then shook her head. "No, I can talk, and you can listen. For once."

Kurumi sat down beside her, and nodded.

"I'm... I'm not completely irrational about this, although I know you think I am. I know why you want to do this, and I know that you can take care of yourself. But I worry. After everything we've been through, I think I _deserve_ to worry about keeping the people I love safe."

Kurumi nodded again, but said nothing.

"So you'll go, I know that. I can't stop you. But you'll take extra supplies, in case you get snowed in while you're out in the mountains. You won't take any risks you don't have to. You won't fight when you can run. You'll come back to me as soon as we can, and if we can't come up with a plan, together, to fight whatever's out there, we leave. I love this house, and I love this land, but it is not my home."

She looked over directly at Kurumi, and took Kurumi's hand in both of hers. " _You_ are my home, Kurumi. As long as we're together nothing else matters. So just come back to me, and... everything will be ok."

Kurumi briefly teared up, and palmed her eyes before leaning over to kiss and hug Yuri. "Yes. Ok. I promise. I promise on everything that's left in this world, on everything I love - which is mostly you -" (Yuri laughed quietly) "- that I will be as safe as I can, and come back to you, no matter what."

Yuri pulled away, and wiped her eyes. "Ok. I believe you." She nodded once, and pulled out her notebook. "Ok, let's start planning for your trip."

They left at dawn two days later, the horses packed with camping gear, extra rations, and their weapons. Kurumi kissed Yuri before mounting up, whispering "No more than a few days, I think. But no matter what, we will be back. I swear."

Yuki and Miki hugged before Miki mounted her horse; Miki gave her a small, hand-sewn handkerchief with a crude rendering of the four of them in front of the ranch. "Remember home, and come back soon," she called up, and Miki nodded.

Yuri and Yuki waved as they rode out, up the trail to the mountains, the rising sun at their backs. Yuki leaned over and wrapped her arms around Yuri, and looked up. "They'll be back, Rii-san, I'm sure of it."

Yuri nodded. "Yes, she swore." And they headed back into the kitchen for breakfast.


	17. Into the Woods

They covered ground quickly, following a crude path occasionally littered with bits of goat, pig, and calf carcasses. The weather was mostly clear, and warm for late October; Kurumi found herself wishing she had brought her sunglasses, and had to remind herself not to drink too much from her canteen.

Shortly after lunch they reached a heavily wooded area along the valley floor that climbed up as far as they could see. It quickly became apparent that the horses wouldn't be able to walk through the thick underbrush, so they hobbled them and left them grazing in a field, packing as much of their gear on their backs as they could.

Inside the woods, the light dropped precipitously, as the sun was blocked by a nearby mountain and the forest canopy blocked much of the rest of the day. So it wasn't surprising to Miki when she stepped in something unstable and fragile, but she let out an involuntary scream when she looked down to see what it was.

"What? What's wrong?" Kurumi was by her side before the echo of her scream had fully died out between the trees.

"I'm sorry, Kurumi-chan, it's... I stepped on a... a deer's skull, it looks like..." Miki backed up and tried to wipe some of the residue from off of her shoe. The fragmented skill still had bits of flesh clinging to it, and a staring hole where she imagined an eye had been, once.

She shuddered; they'd seen worse as the infection period had gone on, but something about it not being human remains made it harder to block it out.

They continued deeper into the forest; before they lost sight of the entrance Kurumi used her weapon to scrape the bark off of a tree limb, making it visible against the gloom as a guidepost on the way back. They moved deeper and deeper, never letting the last marker out of sight before making the next one, and continued that way until night had all but fallen, at which point they set up camp.

They spent a quiet night sitting close to a fire, which they positioned under the biggest clearing they could find, a few distant stars peaking through the canopy above. The night was peaceful, but they agreed to trade watches throughout the night, just in case. Kurumi went first, carving a point onto a random branch while Miki snored quietly nearby.

The next morning they broke camp and continued in much the same way, moving and marking, moving and marking. But Kurumi felt they were making progress - the decaying trophies were getting more frequent, but obviously older. And the woods were getting quieter, eerily so, except for distant yelps and howls that got closer over the course of the day.

Around noon they saw the promontory through a gap in the trees. From their position it was a nearly sheer face of perhaps twenty or thirty meters that almost entirely surrounded a thickly wooded top; Kurumi guessed there might be a path to the top from behind, but couldn't tell for sure.

They moved closer to it without discussion, moving faster as they changed course - they both sensed it was important, if only because they'd be able to see more of the valley from the top.

At the next gap in the trees they could clearly see the cabin at the top, overlooking the valley.

At the gap after that, almost at the base of the cliff, they could see faint smoke coming out of a chimney.

Miki turned and looked at Kurumi, wide-eyed; just as she was about to speak Kurumi placed a finger over her lips and pulled her back under the trees, out of line-of-sight to the cabin.

"I know, I saw it too," she whispered. "And maybe it is another survivor... but we don't know if they're friendly. If we can see them, they can see us, and I'm not sure they can't hear us from up there, either."

Miki paused. "I... don't hear anything from up there." Kurumi nodded.

"Me either, but we need to be cautious about this. Look," she said, pointing at the cliff face, where a natural indent could be seen a few meters above the forest floor. "It's not that late, but it would be almost sundown by the time we climb up there, and I don't want to explore that area in the dark. We can rest on that ledge over there - it looks reasonably secure - and go up in the morning. No fire for tonight, though."

Miki nodded, and they quickly moved to the cliff face, boosting each other up and onto a rock ledge just large enough for their sleeping bags.

Evening came, and night, and Miki was up for the first watch. Time passed, and nothing much happened. She let her mind drift to the time before the infection, meeting Kei for the first time, growing closer, the fear when she realized her own feelings towards Kei followed by the sudden joy when she realized Kei liked her back...

There was a howl from above them, followed by another, and another. After a while the howling grew quieter, moved away from them... then got louder and louder, coming back closer. Miki realized that the pack - it could only be a pack of dogs or wolves making the sound - had gone from the cabin, circled down the cliff face, and was now coming back around to the base of the cliff.

She turned to wake Kurumi, who was already awake, squatting, her naginata raised up.

Miki looked back down, where the half moonlight gave enough illumination for shapes, if not colors. The creatures - there were perhaps eight or ten of them, all the size and shapes of a large dog. (Perhaps a wolf, but it occurred to Miki she'd never actually seen a wolf.) They ran together in a roughly linear stream, with a clear leader and a crowd, no more than two or three abreast, running behind it.

They ran past Miki and Kurumi's ledge... except for the last one, who stopped, and looked directly at them, his eyes reflecting a pale silver in the moonlight. He howled once, twice, mournfully, and then ran ahead to join his comrades.


	18. The Cabin and The King

They kept watch for a few more hours, drifting off to sleep here and there before startling awake again. The pack didn't return, and they heard no more noises from above until dawn came, cold, dim and foggy.

They had a quick breakfast of dried fruit, jerky and water before climbing down and making their way up and around the cliff face. They gradually rose above the fog to see an orange sun peeking through high, streaky clouds - and dark gray clouds below that on the horizon, a strong sign of an approaching storm.

They kept climbing.

Behind the cliff was a dirt path leading up to the top, snaking through the trees. They advanced slowly up it, not seeing anyone or anything on the way except for gnawed bones.

At the top of the path was a large, fenced clearing, with the cabin at the far end, nearest the cliff. It was all very rustic. The fence was split rails, the cabin was wood and crude paper screens... and poorly maintained, since Miki could see holes in the screens, frames hanging ajar, and even the main door open, flapping in the wind.

Kurumi pulled her back into the trees surrounding the fence and pulled out a pair of binoculars; she scanned the area for a few minutes, then grunted softly and passed the binoculars to Miki. "Tell me what you see."

Miki's first impression was that the squalor was even worse than she'd noticed - there were bones and animal droppings all over the fenced area. The yard itself was empty of life, although there were shelters - dog houses, she assumed - scattered throughout. The house itself was dilapidated, with the chimney at a distinct angle and shingles barely hanging on around the roof.

In the house itself, through the open door and the torn screens, she could see more debris and filth on the floor. A low fire ran in the fireplace - there was a substantial wood pile built up against one side of the house, which had presumably been used for fuel over time - and, at last, a man, shuffling back and forth in front of the fireplace. She couldn't see his face through the door, at their angle, but she recognized the pattern well enough by this point.

"He's... infected, isn't he?"

Kurumi nodded. "I think... we're dealing with one infected man, and a pack of infected dogs. Look, the yard's clearly set up to raise and take care of animals, and the cabin's... what do they call it in those American news stories? 'Survivalist?' We've got a hermit out here who turned infected, and must have turned his dogs infected too. It's interesting... I guess they're all still fairly functional, even after being infected. They're hunting as a pack, and I guess they're even bringing him food back as well. We know that the infected just slow down and die if they don't eat after a while, but in this case, if they do eat, I guess they can go on for a pretty long time."

Miki took another look through the binoculars. "Maybe... although I'm wondering how recently this happened. That wood pile's pretty large - I'm willing to buy that he'd keep putting logs on the fire out of habit, but I doubt he can build a wood pile. Maybe he was doing ok out here until he got bitten, and..."

Kurumi nodded. "Yeah, could be. I guess we might never know... but it doesn't change what we've got to do, anyway."

Miki looked over at her as she readied her pole arm. "You want to take him out?" Kurumi nodded.

"We have to, and the dogs too. The infection seems to have run its course just about everywhere else, but when we find a long-lived pocket of it, like this... it's a danger to us, it's a danger to the ranch. If we go in now, the two of us, we can take him out without too much trouble, and then wait for the dogs to get back... I think we can find a way to be protected while they attack, and get rid of them all for good."

Miki looked down and shivered... but unsheathed her short sword and took a deep breath. "Ok. Ok. I follow your lead."

Kurumi nodded, then suddenly reached over to hug Miki tightly. "We do this, stay safe, then go home, right? Just this one risky thing, and then back to Yuri and Yuki-chan."

Miki felt herself tearing up briefly, then nodded.

Kurumi walked directly to the front gate, which hung open. She motioned Miki through, then closed it behind them. Then she advanced on the cabin, Miki trailing behind her, calling out, "Hey! Hey, come out! Fresh delicious meat, come and get it!"

There was a moan - she hadn't heard its like in months, but her heart beat cold at the sound - and the infected man stumbled out of the cabin, headed right for Kurumi. Miki had the time to notice a few details - his flesh was still relatively firm, marking him as newly infected, and he hadn't been a particularly old man when he got bitten - before Kurumi, without hesitation, brought her naginata down in a sweeping arc, breaking his head open and dropping him instantly.

There was a moment of silence, nothing but the wind in the trees, and then Miki became aware of other noises. There was a steady yelp from one side of the yard, where a larger than average dog house held a largish orange and white dog, pacing back and forth at the entrance. And behind what Miki suddenly realized must be a female dog were two or three squirming puppies, emitting tiny barks behind their mother.

She turned to Kurumi to point it out when she saw the dark shapes coming down the road.

The infected dogs were low and fast and did not bark as they attacked, simply leapt with mouths open and claws extended, two or three at a time. Miki didn't have time to worry about Kurumi, or anything else other than cutting the first one that came at her while dodging the second...

...and the third hit her legs, toppling her down onto the ground, dazing her as her head hit the turf and bounced.

She cut wildly, only vaguely aware of what was going on or what she was attacking, holding fast to the thought that Kurumi had survived something like this, so she could too. She felt her sword repeatedly connect with something as she slashed side to side, but also felt something thrashing at her back, and at her legs, even as she rolled and kicked and tried to stand up.

After a backwards roll - a move she wasn't sure she was doing properly, even as she was doing it - she ended up on her feet, and used half a second of clear visibility to see at least two dogs dead in front of her, and another two snarling, ready to leap. She stabbed quickly at the one closest to her and felt a solid connection and a yelp, and then the other one was on her, clawing at her arm and biting for her throat. One, two bites hit nothing but air, but they were getting closer, and she didn't have the leverage or the strength to keep the thing at bay.

She had a moment to think of Yuki standing on tip-toes to kiss her, and for that moment, that's all she wanted in the world.

Then she felt something heavy slam into the weight on top of her, and a yelp. She rolled away on her side to see two dogs snarling at each other, circling, and recognized one of them as the mother dog in the kennel just before they leapt at each other, going for the throat. There was another yelp, and a spray of blood, and the mother lay on the ground, bleeding heavily from the throat, while her attacker shook some piece of fur and flesh in his jaws back and forth.

She brought her sword down on its neck, slicing its head clean off, and the battle was over.

She looked around and saw no fewer than five dead dogs around her, including the mother dog; Kurumi was panting, standing with her naginata at the ready, surrounded by at least as many. But there were no barks or yelps or any noise, other than the sound of a steadily rising wind in the trees, as the daylight slipped behind swiftly moving gray clouds.

After the fight they moved, almost wordlessly, to the cabin, and sat down on two of the unbroken chairs that surrounded the fireplace, saying nothing, just resting.

Miki became vaguely aware that she was slowly bleeding onto the floor, but made no move to get up.

After some amount of time, Kurumi got up and went outside, bringing their packs in, as well as three yelping puppies. Again, Miki saw this, but made no move to help, not then, and not as Kurumi explored the tiny cabin, rummaging through drawers and cabinets, examining herself in the small, filthy mirror over a wash basin.

Kurumi came over to examine Miki, and wiped her cuts down with a wet cloth before winding clean bandages around her arms and legs; then she did the same to herself. Finally she passed a canteen to Miki, and let her drink her fill of cold water before doing the same herself.

"So..." she said after a moment, leaning back. "So I don't think there are any infected left, although I've closed the door and hopefully there'll be enough time for us to react if something does happen. These little guys -" she said, pointing to the pile of puppies, each happily chewing on a piece of jerky "- all seem to be ok."

"Their mother..." Miki began, and became aware of how dry her mouth was. "Their mother saved me..."

Kurumi nodded. "I think there may have been a few dogs that remain uninfected - they probably scared off the infected, did some kind of territorial thing, or dominance display, I don't know."

"But we can be thankful they helped us, regardless," Miki said, not shifting her gaze from the far wall.

"Yes." Kurumi nodded. "They saw were were healthy humans and wanted to help us. They were..." She sighed. "They were good dogs. And... there's some food here, some weapons, and a lot of firewood. And you and I came through the fight ok, except..."

"Except?"

Kurumi sighed. "You weren't bitten, but they did cut you with their claws. And I... I did get bitten," she said, pulling up her sleeve and showing a clear bite pattern on her upper arm, not far from where Megu-nee had bitten her, months before.

Miki jerked her head up, staring intently at Kurumi. "Kurumi-senpai... you need to take the antidote! And perhaps I should as well..."

Kurumi sighed again and looked into the fire. "That's... that's the problem. We brought the injector and two doses in our packs. But... the dogs savaged the packs as they attacked us. One dose was ruined, and the other... well, I didn't notice it before, but there is a use-by date on it, and that date is last February..."

Miki stared at her, wide-eyed. "So what do we do, Kurumi-senpai?"

Kurumi shook her head. "I... think the only thing we can do is wait and see what happens. If... if either of us is infected, it'll show up within hours at the very latest. We might be ok - the dose I took might still protect me, and the scratches you got might not actually spread the virus. So we can sit here and hope for the best, and if one of us does start to turn we can use the dose we have left..."

"And... if that doesn't work? Or if we both get sick?" Miki asked quietly.

"Then... then that's what we have the weapons for. We do what we have to, if we have to. And for now... for now we just wait."

Miki nodded, reached out across the hearth, and took Kurumi's hand.

They sat back, and started to wait.

Outside, it began to snow.


	19. Desolate

The first few days after Miki and Kurumi left they kept busy finishing up the harvest work, and getting ready for winter. With just two people instead of four, there was enough to do that they didn't have time to sit around and mope over who was missing during the day. Dinners were simpler and quieter; they went to bed earlier but tossed and turned more, during long nights when worries couldn't be kept at bay.

Three days after they left, Yuki was sitting on the fence facing the direction Miki had ridden off in, halfheartedly carving a wooden goat, when she saw two horses in the distance, slowly advancing. She excitedly called out to Yuri, who was working in the kitchen, and ran out, rubbing her hands on her apron.

It took them a nearly a minute to realize the horses had no riders.

They searched the animals thoroughly as they got closer; most of the supplies had been cleanly removed, and the animals had initially been hobbled but had clearly chewed through their restraints and come back home.

After gazing up at the mountains for a minute, Yuri said, confidently, "I'm sure everything's fine. Miki-chan and Kurumi must have had to travel on foot, and left the horses to graze; after a while they just got tired of waiting and came home."

Yuki nodded slowly, then frowned. "But... the horses would have waited a while, right? That means Mii-kun and Kurumi-chan have been on foot for a while... and they'll have to walk the whole way back on foot..."

Yuri smiled. "It'll be fine, Yuki-chan. Have faith. Kurumi knows what she's doing." And she took the horse's reigns and started leading it back to the barn; Yuki followed.

That evening it started to snow; by the morning it was halfway up the windows. Other than caring for the animals each morning an evening, harvest work was done for the year, and Yuki contented herself rewatching old anime series on DVD.

Yuri stood by the window and stared out at the white, unmoving, for nearly an hour at a time.

It snowed for two days, at the end of which the snow had built up in drifts over Yuki's head. But at the end, there was a period of cold, clear weather, with dazzlingly bright sun reflecting off the snow and fine, high clouds stretched like frost across the sky. During the day they climbed up onto the roof of the house, scanning the mountains with binoculars, waiting for Miki and Kurumi to return. At night they turned on some bright spotlights Kurumi had set up before she left, leaving the ranch as a brilliant white island in the dark, visible for miles.

A week went by with no return.

Another bout of bad weather came, this time lasting four days. Bouts of cold rain were intermixed with heavy snow; the drifts outside melted and built up and refroze, leaving odd ice formations that draped over the ranch structures.

Yuki kept watching anime; Yuri kept standing at the window, watching.

When the weather cleared again, Yuki woke up to dim gray light filtering into the house, and an eerie silence after the steady drone of rain and wind and snow over the past few days. She moved to the kitchen, surprised to find Yuri deep in a cooking project, the smell of broth and onions flowing into the rest of the house.

"Rii-san, what... what are you making?"

"Chicken pot pie," she answered, not looking around from her work. "Kurumi loves it, and it'll be nice and warm and filling for her when she comes in from the snow."

"Oh..." Yuki walked up behind her, observing the frenzy of activity, then over to the living room windows, looking out onto the surreal frozen landscape. "Do... did you have a sign that they'll be coming home soon?"

Yuri laughed, fast and shallow, before glancing over at Yuki with a quick smile and turning back to her work. "Yuki-chan, they'll be back any moment now! Kurumi said she'd only be gone a few days, and it's been longer than that, so she has to come back soon. And we need to be ready for them! Once I get the pie in the oven, I want to start cleaning the house and decorating. It won't be too long until it's Christmas, you know..."

Yuki smiled gently. "Rii-san, it's only the middle of November. I think it might be a little early for Christmas, right? I was thinking, maybe we could put on some snow shoes and walk up into the mountains a little, just to see if there's any trace or evidence..."

Yuri laughed again, this time intercut with the loud sounds of her chopping vegetables. "Yuki-chan, you aren't trying to get out of doing work, are you? Besides, I can't possibly leave when I'm in the middle of all this cooking. If you want to go play in the snow, go ahead, just be ready to help me when you come back!"

"Oh... ok, Rii-san..." she said, darting into the kitchen to grab a bit of breakfast before heading out to the mud room to cover up for going outside.

As she left Yuri was still cooking furiously.

The outside world was covered with layers of snow and ice stacked on top of each other; the cleated snow shoes she wore combined with her petite size made it easier not to get stuck or slide, but it was still slow going. It was a five minute walk to the fence, and another twenty minutes to get to the top of the modest rise just beyond that.

At the top of the ridge a cold wind cut right through her parka. She looked out at a featureless desert of snow, perfectly smooth drifts on the ground picking up little light from the dim gray clouds that covered the sky. Nothing human stood out on the horizon.

"Mii-kun?" She called out softly, and was surprised at how far her voice carried into the air.

"Mii-kun! Mii-kun! MII-KUUUUN!" She called out louder and louder, ending up yelling without fully intending to. "MII-KUN!" She waved her arms and jumped in the air, realizing only as she was doing it that she was desperately scanning the horizon, hoping to see someone waving back, coming home to her.

No one did. She collapsed onto the ground, crying heavily, feeling her tears freeze on her face as they fell.

After a few minutes, she pulled herself back up and started back to the house, glancing back once to see a still empty, still indifferent world looking back.


	20. Christmas

Every day that passed Yuri went a little more elaborate. That first day there was an enormous pot pie for dinner, of which they only ate a quarter and froze the rest, but by the third day there was a roast with vegetables and wine. Again, they couldn't eat most of it and froze most of the meal.

By the fifth day there was both a full dinner and lighted garlands draped around the living room.

By the sixth day Yuri was talking about hiking through the snow up to the mountains to chop down a tree for Christmas; when Yuki again pointed out Christmas was weeks away, she simply laughed her brittle laugh and said that Kurumi would be expecting it, that Kurumi would be expecting everything to be perfect.

Fortunately it began snowing the next day, and there was no more talk of going out.

During the storm, dinners became simple affairs once more; they either worked their way through the frozen leftovers or made simple rice dishes.

During the day Yuki played and watched TV as usual, while Yuri stood silently by the windows and looked out into the white, then gray, then black as night progressed. After dinner, Yuri quickly retreated into her room. After her bath, walking by, Yuki noticed that she was simply sitting up in the middle of the king-sized bed, a pool of light falling on her from a single lamp above, staring at a notebook in her lap but not reading or writing anything.

"Rii-san? Are you ok?"

Yuri slowly looked up, smiled wanly, and nodded. "I'm fine, Yuki-chan, just about to go to sleep. You should too... it might stop snowing tomorrow, and then Kurumi and Miki-chan will be back..."

Yuki nodded slowly. "Rii-san, it's... it's very cold and dark in my room. Can... can I sleep with you tonight?"

Yuri shook her head. "I don't know, Yuki-chan... Kurumi would be upset if she lost her space..."

Yuki nodded "I know, I know! As soon as Kurumi-chan comes back, I'll give the space back to her. Just... just while we're waiting..."

Yuri sighed, then pulled back the covers on one side of her. Yuki smiled and ran to the bed, almost diving in and wrapping her arms around Yuri. Yuri stroked her hair a few times, then put her notebook away and reached behind her to turn off the light, leaving the room in almost total darkness.

Yuki wasn't sure when Yuri fell asleep, but she slept better than she had in weeks, held against Yuri's soft, warm body.

The snow stopped again after the third day; almost immediately Yuri was making plans to go get a Christmas tree. As much as anything Yuki said yes because she was sick of being inside, and they bundled up to go into brilliant blue skies, blinding sun, and bitter cold.

It took them nearly two hours to climb to the nearest trees up the mountain, and another hour and a half of amateur fumbling to cut down a three meter tree and attach tethers to the base to haul it back down the mountain. The sun was below the ridge line and the horizon had turned a deep purple by the time they made it back home. They set the tree upright overnight to let the branches spread out, and the next day started to decorate it.

Yuki began to follow Yuri's lead more and more. Every morning was cooking and cleaning and decorating, every day slightly more elaborate, because tonight was the night they would come home.

And every afternoon they dressed up a little more. At first it was just nice dresses in case Kurumi and Miki were to come home that night, and over time it became more and more formal: stockings, shoes, styled hair, makeup, jewelry. Yuki did her best to keep up, and it was fun indulging in girly things for a time.

But she quickly realized that, while she herself was only ever going to look cute or pretty, Yuri was working towards a level of formality that she could never touch. At the end of hours of work, Yuri was perfect, not a hair out of place, every particle of makeup perfectly aligned. Her dresses were without a wrinkle or stain, and she would move to the dinner table and sit there, in front of the uneaten meal, waiting as evening advanced and the light came to almost nothing. It was like seeing a magazine ad in real life, and Yuki actually did take photos of how wonderful everything looked... at least a few times, before she felt an unspoken pressure to sit across the table from Yuri, staying perfectly still, hands in lap, waiting for the door to open and Miki and Kurumi to come in.

After nine in the evening, every night, Yuri would begin to serve the food, and they'd both eat a little before thoroughly putting everything away, cleaning, and readying things for the next night... when Yuri knew, without saying aloud, that Kurumi and Miki would return.

A second, third, and forth snowless day passed like this.

A fifth.

A sixth.

On the evening of the seventh, just before eight-thirty, it began to snow, a few flakes catching in the spotlights outside, quickly turning thicker and thicker until a white torrent had almost reduced visibility to nothing.

And Yuki began to cry, a few soft tears starting to form on her cheeks and drip down onto the black pleated skirt she'd picked for the evening, the tears becoming burning streams leaving her eyes as she started to shudder and sob.

"Rii... Rii-san, I don't - ahh, ahh - I don't think they're coming back, something... something must have happened..."

Yuri rose, still pristine in her black and white dress, and slowly walked towards the lit fireplace. "They'll be here any moment, Yuki-chan," she said softly.

"But... but it's been so long! Even if they were stuck in the snow, they've had so many opportunities to come back! They could have walked back by now from almost anywhere! And with this snow... the more snow there is, the harder it will be for them to even find their way home, much less get through the blizzard! Rii-san, we... we have to do something! Maybe we can go find them, take the horses, when it stops snowing! Or... or maybe we need to run away, if whatever got them comes for us..."

Yuri didn't turn, or shake her head, but just kept staring at the fire and quietly spoke. "We're not fighters, Yuki-chan. And the snow's too deep for us to get through in the Behemoth. But Kurumi knows that, so she'll come home to us. She swore. And we'll do what we're good at, which is be here, and be supportive, and nurturing, and make the perfect place for her to come home to. Which is what we've done. So she will come home. Any moment."

"Rii-san! Please! Please, you're scaring me, we have to break out of this, we have to..."

There was a crack from above their heads; the second-story entrance to the living room, largely ignored and closed for months, if not years, was being opened. Yuki screamed.

"It's Them! They've climbed up the snow drift and they're breaking through the door! Please, Rii-san, we have to fight them-" she yelled, and ran to the fireplace to grab a poker. Yuri simply stood, looking up at the door, face utterly at peace.

"Kurumi will protect us, Yuki-chan," she said.

The door blew open all at once, sending a drift of snow onto the landing and a flurry of flakes blowing inside. A figure, caked with snow, lumpy and oddly top-heavy, stumbled through the opening and stood there swaying for a moment, soon followed by another.

The second figure closed the door and bolted it; the first pulled off a hat and undid a scarf to reveal light brown hair and pale skin.

"Yuki-chan! We're back!"

Yuki dropped the poker from trembling fingers, while Yuri closed her eyes and smiled, whispering so softly only Yuki could hear her.

"Welcome home, Mr. Bailey."

The second figure, Kurumi, skittered down half the stairs and jumped over the rest, then ran across the floor, stripping off a hat, scarf, and gloves as she went, leaving a trail of fresh snow behind her. She reached Yuri and immediately wrapped her arms around her, dipping the taller woman slightly off of her pumps to kiss her passionately.

They spoke together in a jumble, stopping to kiss frequently:

"I'm so sorry, we were attacked, Miki got sick-"

"I knew you would come, I waited, I knew if I just waited everything would be-"

"The snow, the blizzard, it took forever, but I knew you were there, we could see the lights from the ranch in the snow-"

"You're here, you're here and you won't leave me again, you can't, promise-"

"I will, I do, I won't, I promise-"

Yuki stared at the two of them for a moment, then turned and ran to meet Miki at the bottom of the stairs, helping her with her hat and scarf and helping her to remove a lumpy backsack, all covered with snow.

"Mii-kun, are you alright? I... we were so worried, we thought... we thought you weren't coming back, I thought..."

Miki smiled, and reached out to hug Yuki so hard she couldn't breathe for a moment.

Then Miki kissed her, fast but intense, and firm.

"I missed you more than I have words to say, Yuki," she said, and hugged her again.

Yuki stood still for a moment, looking up at her, then started crying. "Miki... oh, Miki!"

Miki held her while she cried and calmed down, for minutes that seemed like hours and like no time at all. It was only when the backpack started to thrash around and yip that she tore her face away from Miki's chest.

"Miki, what are...?"

Miki smiled and reached down, unveiling three orange and white hairballs who slowly emerged from the sack, and started sniffing around.

"They're Akita puppies, Yuri. We found them... well, it's a long story, but they're ours now, and we have to take care of them."

Yuki didn't move from Miki's arms, but turned to look up at her in joy. "They look just like Taromaru!"

Miki laughed. "Yeah, but they'll get a lot bigger. Trust me."

Yuri stepped forward, leading Kurumi by the hand. "Welcome back, Miki-chan. You must be tired, so come sit down." She gestured at the perfectly prepared table.

"Dinner is served."


	21. Riders

Yuki finished her chores early, and headed out to the edge of the property to sit and carve and look out at the valley below. It was a warm April evening, late enough in the year for the snow to have melted and the ground to have dried somewhat. The grass was coming in a rich green and the dogs ran in circles, chasing each other, while the distant hills still caught a bit of golden light from the sunset.

She'd been staring at the riders, off and on, for several minutes before she finally realized they were actual people headed towards the ranch, and not some distant optical illusion.

"Miki! Rii-san! Kurumi-chan! Miki! Rii-san! Kurumi-chan! People! People are headed this way! There's people! They're coming! Miki! Rii-san! Kurumi-chan!"

She was hoarse and out of breath from yelling by the time she made it back to the house; Miki, who'd been the first to hear her, still couldn't make out what she was saying, so they had to wait while Yuki had a drink of water and caught her breath to explain things again.

Three minutes later they stood at the front gate, watching the horses come down the road towards them. Yuri, nervous, kept wringing her apron in her hands; she couldn't help but notice that Miki had brought her sword, even if it was hanging off her back hip, half hidden. Yuki held Miki's hand, while Kurumi held back, her naginata present, but held at a low angle.

"Hello!" One of the riders, a woman, called out to them as she approached; she stopped perhaps ten meters in front of them, climbed down from her horse and bowed. As she did so, her companion, a man, also bowed his head. The four women from the ranch also bowed, but for a moment it struck Miki how alien it seemed; not something she'd done in years.

The woman was in her mid-twenties and seemed to be in good health; she was dressed in the same jeans, cotton shirt and boots Miki and Kurumi favored when they were working. The man was perhaps five years younger, and similarly dressed; he had a short sword on his hip not dissimilar to Miki, but didn't look particularly threatening otherwise.

"I'm Haruka Mitsune; this is my brother Toshiro. It's great to see more people out here, we've been traveling from our home around Ninohe looking for other survivors. We-"

And she stopped because Yuki had run up to her and was hugging her tightly, sobbing silently. Haruka paused for a moment, and hugged Yuki back. "I'm... I'm very happy to see you too," she said. "It's always joyous to meet other survivors."

"Yuki!" Miki cried out, exasperated. "That's not the way to treat our guests..." she advanced towards Yuki, gently peeled her off Haruka, and bowed again. "Our... our apologies, Mitsune-san. You are literally the first survivors we've seen in five years, so we're a little... overwhelmed. Please don't-"

"No, no, no, perfectly understandable!" Haruka waved her hands vigorously. "We've gotten all sorts of welcomes over the years; this is one of the better ones! At least you're not shooting at us. I promise we're friendly, and it looks like you are too, so..."

"Oh... of course," Miki said, suddenly conscious of the sword on her hip. She moved her hand to the handle as if to hide it, then realized that was just calling attention to it, removed it and bowed again, unsure of what else to do.

"So..." Haruka said, "As I said, we've been traveling, looking for other survivors. I assume the four of you live here, are there others, or...?"

Kurumi stepped forward, her naginata held back on her shoulder. "Again, forgive our awkwardness, Mitsune-san. I'm Kurumi Ebisuzawa; this is Yuri Wakasa, Miki Naoki and Yuki Takeya." The women nodded in turn, and Haruka nodded back. "This is everyone - as Miki said, we haven't seen anyone who wasn't infected since we left Tokyo five years ago, and no infected for more than three years. But this place has been a good home to us - we have power and water and we grow our own food, and you're welcome to stay as long as you need."

Haruka bowed again, and smiled. "Well, we won't stay indefinitely, but we would certainly welcome a chance to rest for a few days and get to know you better. And we can pay our way - we've got antibiotics and other goods you might be interested in, plus we can discuss setting up a regular trade route for a lot of things we don't have with us right now."

Yuki couldn't help herself; she leaned in again and gave Haruka another bear hug. "I'm so happy to meet you, Mitsune-san," she said. Haruka was nearly a head taller than Yuki, but kissed her gently on the top of the head and hugged her back. "Me as well, Takeya-san."


	22. Dinner

Toshiro dismounted and they all walked back to the ranch together; Kurumi and Yuki fell back to talk with Toshiro and examine his horse, while Miki and Yuri found themselves walking with Haruka. After another moment of silence, Haruka spoke up again.

"Forgive me for asking, but the wedding rings you're wearing - are you married?"

Yuri instinctively brought her hands together, turning the narrow gold band around her ring finger. "Oh, yes... yes we are. I mean," she felt herself blushing, "I mean, I'm... I'm married to Kurumi and Miki-chan is married to Yuki-chan. And, of course, it was... just a small ceremony that we did three years ago, just the four of us, no priest and of course legally I suppose two women can't be married in Japan, so..."

"Hey, hey, hey, it's ok!" Haruka said, laughing, holding up her hands. "You're certainly married as far as I'm concerned. It's a new world, and this is your land - you make the laws. I only was asking if perhaps all four of you were married to each other, since you've all got similar rings..."

"No!" Miki yelped, and Yuri vigorously shook her head. "I mean," Miki continued, "I care for Yuri-san very much, and Kurumi-chan as well, but, no. Yuki is the only wife I want."

Haruka laughed again. "It's fine, it's fine! I only asked because it wouldn't have been the first time I saw a group relationship like that. People have bonded in unexpected ways since the infection, and there are far more women left after the plague than men, so..."

"Really?" Yuri looked over at Haruka, curiously. "There aren't many men left?"

Haruka nodded. "Just about everyone I've ever met survived by hiding as much as possible until the infected died out. And, frankly, I think most guys were just hardwired to fight instead of hide. Toshiro and I only made it through because..." her face stiffened for a moment. "Well, we can exchange war stories some other time. Suffice to say, you're not the only girls who hid away and survived into the new world, but there's not a lot of us left. Our settlement has about twenty people, and we've seen about that many on our travels, not including you. There's just... wide open spaces these days, I suppose. Plenty of room, but not many friends."

They arrived at the barn and Haruka stayed with Miki and Kurumi to put the horses away, while Yuki and Yuri led Toshiro into the house. When the rest of the group joined them there, Toshiro and Yuki were already playing video games, and Kurumi promptly joined them.

Dinner was a stew cooked for four, stretched out to six thanks to biscuits with jam that Yuri whipped up at the last moment. While they ate, Kurumi and Miki largely laid out their shared history, with Yuki and Yuri speaking up from time to time. As they talked about the documents and drugs they'd found in the school, Haruka nodded.

"I don't think we'll ever find out everything about what happened, but the Randall Corporation had more than one safe location like that - you're not the first people I've talked to who hid away like you did. Although it is a little surprising that most of the locations were set up to hold dozens of people and many of them held just a handful. The infection spread more quickly than they expected, I suppose."

A silence fell around the table until Miki spoke up. "You... think they meant to... to spread the infection?"

Haruka shook her head. "Again, I don't know for sure, but they were very well prepared for it. The drugs they had against the infection, for example - they protect you for life, did you know that? Just one dose and you're good for years. And all the doses we've run across... well, they weaken in potency as they age-"

"That makes sense!" Miki cut in. "We... I got infected three years ago, and took one of the doses we had left, but it took weeks for the infection to die off. But when Kurumi-chan got bitten, it took her only one day for the infection to go away."

Haruka nodded. "Yes, that's consistent with what we've seen. In fact, if there were any original doses left, they'd probably be completely useless by now. Although there's two pieces of good news - there aren't any infected left, not that we've seen for years, and about a year after the infection our doctor figured out how to make a vaccine from the blood of people who've already taken the drug. It doesn't last long outside the body, but we can show you how to treat anyone here who hasn't taken the drug yet."

They finished their story and dinner about the same time; as Haruka leaned back in her chair, sipping a glass of wine, she looked over at her brother. "Toshiro, why don't you take a break and play some more games? I can tell our story to whoever's interested, but no reason for you to sit through it again."

He stood and nodded, then silently cleared the table of dishes before retreating to the other side of the living room. Soon Yuki joined him and there was the low chaos noise of a kart racer coming from the TV.

Haruka sighed. "I... I can get into the details of where we were when it happened, but I think you know what it was like, day to day, losing people suddenly and then sitting through long, terrible stretches of boredom. We weren't at a Randall Corporation safe house, but something similar - it was a disaster relief warehouse established by one of the big non-governmental organizations, on the outskirts of town, to help people after earthquakes or fires or something. The only problem was, nobody who was supposed to be managing the place actually made it there; it was just stragglers who got there by accident."

"So we made do with what we had. There were maybe ten of us after the first few days, and we had water and food and supplies enough for hundreds of people for months, so we were never in any danger of running out. And the warehouse was all ciderblock walls and good metal doors, so we were safe that way too. It's just..."

She sighed again. "Little accidents accumulate, you know? Somebody gets stir crazy and has to go outside, and it's been weeks since you heard any infected. And maybe they come back ok, but they forgot to latch the door properly, or they secretly got bitten, or... There's just attrition of people, friends, people you care about, maybe even people you hate, all the time. By the end of the first year, there really weren't any infected left, but we were down to four people. It was... very hard on Toshiro. You may have noticed he doesn't talk much..."

Kurumi nodded. "He seems very friendly, but he'd only answer our questions with one or two words at a time."

"Yes. He's very smart, and kind, but he just hesitates to connect with people at that level. He'll _do_ things - all sorts of chores, he'll give gifts, draw you pictures, he's got a lot of girlfriends at home - but in part of him, I guess he believes that if he doesn't talk with people he can handle it if... if something happens..."

Yuri reached out, and held Haruka's hand. She shook her head.

"Sorry, sorry, that came out more self-pitying than I wanted it to. We're fine, in the long run - the infected stopped coming, more people found us in the years after, and we set up some basic fences and walls and made a little society around the warehouse. And after a while, we even decided to start exploring and reaching outside, and here we are!"

"Here you are," Yuri said, and squeezed her hand again, and Miki put her hand on her shoulder as well.

They finished the evening ice cream and shortbread for dessert, gathered around the TV for a movie, the gem colors of the screen flashing around the darkened room and out into the night beyond.


	23. I want

They retired to bed late that evening, Miki and Yuki to their shared room at the back of the house, Kurumi and Yuri to their bedroom, Toshiro to the spare room and Haruka on the couch - after a long bath in their tub, the first she said she'd had for years.

Kurumi laughed long and loud upon hearing Haruka's question about their wedding rings.

"I can't even imagine... I mean, I love Yuki to death, but being in any kind of serious, adult relationship with her... I don't know how Miki-chan does it!"

Yuri smiled, and leaned closer to Kurumi, putting her arms around her. "I know, I know... they're both more like kid sisters to me than anything. but it was interesting, to finally hear about people outside of the ranch, to know that there's still a world out there, and a future out there, and that people are adapting in all sorts of ways..."

Kurumi nodded. "Someday... not this year, too much work to do... but someday, I'd like to meet them, see the world outside the ranch again, you know? It'd be hard - the gas all gone bad, so no more cars - but we could do it if we timed it right..."

They sat together for a moment, contemplating, and Yuri spoke up again. "Having them here, hearing about what they've done, their life outside of the ranch, it did make me think of the future, of what we can do..."

"Oh?" Kurumi turned towards her, smiling, and kissed her cheek. "You like Haruka? Want to try out one of these three women marriages with her?" She laughed again.

"No, of course not," said Yuri, blushing. "But... but there is something important I wanted to talk to you about, since they are here. It's... it's a big topic, but I think we have to decide within the next few days, and it will change so much, but it's... I mean, I think we have to... someday, one way or another..."

Kurumi laughed again. "Yuri, you're being so nervous! Just spit it out! We'll talk through it, whatever you want."

Yuri nodded. "Ok. Ok. Kurumi, I love you more than anything, but... but I..."

She took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and then looked directly at Kurumi. "Kurumi, my love, I want to have a baby."


	24. Awkward question

Kurumi looked at her a moment, saying nothing, then blinked. "Ah, with Toshiro-san! For a moment I thought you meant with me..."

Yuri smiled and shook her head. "No, I don't think the laws of biology changed because of the apocalypse. But... yes, Toshiro-san is the first man we've seen in five years, and unless we... I mean, I don't think there are any sperm banks left, or anything like that. If we don't... if we're not with a man the old-fashioned way, then there are no more children. And... I want to have a baby, with you. I want to raise a family with you."

Kurumi leaned against her and put her arms around her, but looked down and away for a time; Yuri said nothing but stroked her hair and waited. After a while, she was about to break the silence when Kurumi spoke up again.

"It's funny... ever since the infection started, I've cared about you deeply, but it wasn't until... well, for a long time I never even considered that we'd be in a relationship. And now we've been married for so long... I don't doubt you, Yuri. I know why you want to do it, and it makes sense, and I won't stand in your way. It's just... part of me feels like I'm letting you down, like you have to do this because I'm not enough for you, somehow. Even though," she looked up at Yuri and laughed. "Even though I don't really want to go all Ranma and grow a dick or something!"

Yuri laughed, and leaned down to kiss her. "I wouldn't want you to. Please believe me - I'm not attracted to Toshiro-san, I'm just attracted to you. It's... it's like a medical procedure, and I go and get it done, and then we get on to the real work of having a kid and raising a family."

Kurumi squeezed her again. "Ok. Ok, let's do it. A little version of you... you know how much I would love that kid? How much of a privilege it will be to be a parent with you?" Another squeeze. "It'll be _so wonderful_... but... how do you, y'know, _ask_ Toshiro about that? I guess... most guys wouldn't turn sex down, so..."

"Hmm..." Yuri made a face. "I hadn't thought... I was so focused on talking about it with you, I never thought about getting his permission. I..."

Kurumi looked up at her. "This situation's weird enough, so I'm hesitant to make it much weirder, but... have you thought of asking Haruka-san? She might have some thoughts on the matter, advice on how to approach him. Maybe they've even gone through this before, right? I mean, she said there's not that many guys left; unless they want the species to die off, they'll have gone through something similar."

Yuri stared off into the distance. "That's not a bad idea..."

Or at least, hadn't seemed like a bad idea when discussing it with Kurumi the previous night. Now, late in the evening when everyone else had gone to bed except for herself and Haruka, staying up late to burn through some old DVDs, it seemed like an insurmountable mountain to climb.

She sat on the far end of the couch from Haruka, and waited for the episode of TV to be over before she spoke.

"Mitsune-san, there's something I wanted to ask you about..."

"Go for it! I'm just gonna grab a soda," she said, hopping up and walking over to the refrigerator.

"I was wondering... in your settlement, and on your travels, have you... have you seen many children?"

Haruka, bending over, looking deep into the fridge, said nothing for a few moments, then stood with a Coke in her hand before looking over at Yuri. "If you want the true answer to that, and if this question is going in the direction I think it is, I'd like some whiskey to go with my Coke. Got any?"

Yuri blinked in surprise. "Oh, oh yes, we have some, I use it for baking sometime. Bottom of the cabinet in the left corner."

Haruka nodded, then retrieved the bottle and two glass tumblers. She sat down across from Yuri, and poured herself a Coke and whiskey before wordlessly offering some to Yuri. Not wanting to be rude, Yuri motioned for a small amount, and took a sip as Haruka passed the glass to her.

It tasted foul, although it did make her feel warmer and slightly more relaxed.

"Children..." Haruka started. "So, long story short, no, not a lot of children left that I've seen. Not live, uninfected ones, at any rate. I told you that there weren't a lot of men left after the infection, but the truth is, there weren't many children either. To survive you had to be a combination of competent, defensive, and lucky that frankly..." She took another drink. "Suffice to say, of the forty-odd people I know who survived, it's about thirty, thirty five women between twenty and fifty, and the rest guys about the same age."

"That... that's terrible, Mitsune-san."

"Call me Haruka-san. So, that's the bad news. The good news is, obviously, there's a whole bunch of women of childbearing age and just enough men to go around. So we should be able to jump start the population pretty quickly..."

Yuri blushed furiously and looked away. "I... I hadn't been thinking of it in those terms, Mi- Haruka-san..."

Haruka took another drink and grinned. "No, I guess I'm the one who's been looking at it big picture. You were probably just thinking you wanted to have a kid with your girl- sorry, your wife, right?"

Yuri nodded, but kept looking away.

"And that's fine. I know one or two people who are all like, 'Mankind brought this on itself! The plague was our just reward for how we treated the planet, or each other, or some damn thing, and we should let humanity just fade away.' And I say, screw that!" Another drink. "People made mistakes then, they're making mistakes now, and they'll make mistakes in the future. That doesn't undo everything that was ever good about us. I like people, and I think we deserve to go on living, especially after what we've been through. And this time, maybe we can learn from the past and do it slightly less crappy in the future."

She took another drink, and stared down at the table for a while; Yuri glanced up at her, but said nothing.

A bit more time passed, and Haruka spoke again. "So... this is the part where you point out that I'm obviously not a man, but my brother is, and to have kids you need two important things..."

Yuri blushed again. "Yes."

Haruka smiled. "And it's ok. It's... awkward, having this conversation, but it's not the first time I've had it. Toshiro can be hard to approach..." She laughed. "It's really bizarre, essentially pimping out my brother like this, but..." She shrugged. "He's a healthy young man. He generally doesn't turn down an opportunity to get to know attractive young women, and he knows what they're really after, and he doesn't have a problem with it. So... not tonight, but tomorrow night, I'll mention that you might be stopping by. And I'll stay out here and watch some more TV, and you'll go to his room, and... viola! Nine months from now, the human race starts spinning up again."

Yuri looked up. "Thank you, thank you, Haruka-san! I... We..."

Haruka held up her hand. "Look, that's the easy part of all this, ok? This isn't like the old days, where you could just go to a hospital when the time comes and the doctors would take care of almost anything that pops up. We have a doctor, but you'd obviously have to leave this ranch to take advantage of her. And if you stay here, then you're sort of on your own if anything happens. I mean... giving birth used to be one of the most dangerous things a woman could do. Even now, we have sanitation and good midwife practices and all that, but it's not risk free. And then you actually have to _raise_ the kid, and..." She shook her head. "It's the beginning of a very, very long road. We'll be passing by from time to time, but it'll be your choice, and your burden. I think you'll understand that Toshiro won't exactly be around to be a hands-on father..."

Yuri nodded. "Yes. We're certain of this, and we're happy to have you and Toshiro around as much as possible, but this is my- our, child. Mine and Kurumi's."

Haruka smiled. "Good. I'm glad we're on the same page here. Like I said, I'll talk to Toshiro tomorrow. In the meantime..." She poured out a finger of straight whiskey into each of their glasses. "Kanpai!"

"Kanpai!"

They clinked glasses and drank, Haruka with an expression close to a smile afterwards, Yuki with a face like she'd just swallowed bleach.

"So," Haruka said. "I obviously don't have all the time I'd want to go through this video library. Got any recommendations?"

Yuri got up, then moved to the shelf where she grabbed a DVD case and put the disk in the player. Then she sat down on the couch with the remote, and patted the seat beside her. "Haruka-san, let me introduce you to a personal favorite of mine. Have you ever seen 'Scarface'?"


	25. Ships that pass in the night

Yuri felt out of sorts all the next day, between the nerves and the slight hangover she was nursing. The day both dragged and flew by. She'd explained the situation to Kurumi that morning, who'd been understanding and supportive... but now the house was dark and it was up to Yuri to walk the hallway, all alone, from her room to Toshiro's.

The hallway seemed far, far longer than she remembered.

She paused outside the door, and took a moment to take a deep breath, then another, before smoothing the simple nightgown she'd chosen. She raised her hand to knock at the door...

...which opened before she brought it down. Yuki stepped out, quietly shutting it behind her before turning around and seeing Yuri.

They stared at each other a moment, open-mouthed, before Yuri took Yuki's hand and pulled her back down the hallway to talk.

"Yuki-chan, _what on earth are you doing here_?"

Yuki looked up at Yuri. Her hair was disheveled, and her cheeks were flushed. She opened her mouth a few times without making any sounds, and finally spoke.

"R-rii-san, are you... do you want to have a baby too?"

Now Yuri was the one who couldn't answer for a moment. "A... a baby? What... what do you mean...?"

Yuki smiled. "It's ok, Rii-san! I had the same idea! I mean, I love Miki very much, but the two of us can never have children by ourselves. And Toshiro-san's a boy, so he can help with that, but he won't be around trying to be my husband or anything! So it's a really good idea! All I had to do was, well..." She blushed even deeper, and stared down at the ground. "It was... very interesting..." she said, quietly.

"Yuki-chan, you're... you want to be... did you talk about this with Miki-chan? Or Haruka-san?"

Yuki looked up, and shook her head. "Miki and I talked about it, of course. It was my idea, but she wanted to be the one who... you know. But I said I should be the one, at least the first time, because she'd be better at taking care of me than I would at taking care of her. And Haruka-san... no, I didn't. Why would it be any business of hers?"

Yuri stepped back and shook her head, then sighed. "I... you're right, there's no real reason you should have. I just never thought that you'd..." and she shook her head again, and laughed.

Suddenly Yuki stepped forward, hugging her tightly, burying her head in Yuri's chest. "It's... it's ok, Rii-san. It was scary at first, but he's really nice. I love Miki way more, but this wasn't a bad thing for us. It's a good thing, and it'll be a good thing for you and Kurumi-chan too."

Still feeling stunned, Yuri wrapped her arms around the shorter woman, and kissed her gently on the top of the head. After a few moments of feeling her warmth and scent, she sighed. "Thank you, Yuki-chan. You're going to be a very good mother."

Yuki squeezed her tighter, and she heard a catch in her breath. "Thank you, Rii-san. You're going to be a good mother too. I just hope I can learn to be as good as you."

She stepped back and smiled at Yuri, tears in the corner of her eyes, and then walked back down the hall, to her shared room with Miki.

Yuri watched her go, then turned, took a deep breath, smoothed out her nightgown, and walked back the other way, towards Toshiro's room, and the future.


	26. Birth is never as hard as the waiting

That summer was a whirlwind of work. Not only was there the usual summertime grind of tending the crops and animals, but they had to work in a few trips, on horseback (the Behemoth was out of commission, all gas having gone bad a few years ago) to nearby towns to scavenge for supplies.

And all of it was made more difficult by Yuri and Yuki's approaching pregnancies.

It was an almost surreal experience for Yuri: riding out of Takizawa in a horse-drawn wagon (that had rubber car tires), already starting to feel awkward and swollen in her belly, Kurumi driving next to her, a trove of books, medical supplies, drugs, a professional-grade CB radio and an ultrasound machine in the back. The sun was an hour away from setting, the wind was warm, and they sang old J-pop songs all the way back home.

The CB radio kept them in touch with Ritsuko, Haruka's doctor at the settlement; she also came out to visit once, over the summer, as part of a trade of meat and produce for medical advice. The ultrasounds and the initial exams went well, and they all took time out for a few days of basic midwife training. (Yuri took to it like a professional, Miki and Kurumi did their best, although neither could fully hide their worry about what their wives were going through, and Yuki fainted more than once.)

As fall moved on, they worked on converting the spare bedroom into a nursery, filling the place with soft, warm colors and huge stuffed animals. Yuri's nesting instincts sent her into an overdrive of cleaning and canning produce, while Yuki, battling high blood pressure, was placed on bed rest for nearly a month. She spent the time reading children's books aloud to the child inside of her - Miki and Kurumi chipped in as well - and she carved wooden toys almost obsessively.

They both had false labor contractions as flurries set in, but it wasn't until a week past the first big snow that Yuki's labor began in earnest, in the thirty-sixth week of her pregnancy.

The labor began at two in the morning; Yuri and Kurumi stumbled out of bed through the dark, cold house, to face Yuki panting, sweating, glassy-eyed with pain. Miki was holding her hand and trying to comfort her, but she was nearly as terrified as Yuki. They eventually moved Miki outside the room to fetch supplies and fret, while Kurumi manned the radio to Ritsuko and Yuri coached Yuki through the contractions.

The day dawned grey and cold, and still Yuki moaned and screamed; hating herself for it Miki went outside periodically, partially to take care of the animals and partially to escape Yuki's cries that she could do nothing about.

Lunch came and went, and Miki had never felt less hungry in her life - it was only through great strength of will that she didn't vomit into the kitchen sink.

Finally, at 15:10 - Miki had been staring at the clock, trying not to think of all that could be going wrong - she heard a baby's cry from their shared room.

She ran in and threw open the door to see Kurumi, disheveled but smiling faintly, Yuri, covered in mess but leaning over to stroke Yuki's hair... and Yuki, crying, exhausted, and smiling as wide as Miki had ever seen her. She was looking down at a red-faced, black-haired bundle, gently nursing at her breast, but looked up as Miki entered the room.

"Mi-Miki..." she said softly. "Come see our daughter."

As Miki stepped to the side of the bed, Yuki looked down again.

"We're so happy you're here," she whispered to the baby. "Welcome to our club, little Megumi."


	27. Epilogue - What shall we do today?

Yuri woke on a cool, bright spring morning, the house quiet. She'd cleared her schedule so she could prepare things without interruption.

Trade routes had opened up enough that she had sugar and rice flour to work with, and she made do the best she could with local nuts and dried fruit to make cookie batter. Then she made herself a pot of tea (another import) and waited for the cookies to bake, the house slowly filling with a delicious smell. She worked on her knitting while she waited, and was unsurprised to be the only one up and about - Miki and Kurumi were surely outside already, hard at their ranch work, and Yuki would still be asleep.

Once the cookies were out of the oven, she let them cool, and finally sprinkled each one with a bit more sugar before wrapping them in a towel and packing them in a basket. Then she made another pot of tea, this one going into a large thermos, and packed up plates and saucers and cups before stepping outside.

Outside the ranch was in full swing. The old barn had been turned into a workshop years before, and she could hear various children and grandchildren hammering and sawing inside. Past the barn was the new house, an enormous wooden structure that housed nearly thirty people, with kids and adults running in and out at a steady pace. Many of them waved at her as they saw her, but kept on their way - they all had busy, productive lives to lead, and Grandmother Yuri would surely be there later for talk and games and advice, just as she had been their entire lives.

The ranch's boundaries had been expanded several times over the years, and she started to walk up a stone path that led up the hill, stopping periodically to rest and look around. Past the new house she could see the front gate, and for a moment she remembered the incident, in Year 20 after the infection, where bandits had come demanding tribute. Kurumi and Miki and Megumi and Hiro, her oldest, had blocked the gate with their makeshift weapons, and the bandits had gone off empty handed to loot abandoned cities rather than risk combat with the ranchers. There had been no similar incidents since - their tribe grew bigger and stronger with every passing year - but she still shivered when she thought about what might have happened.

Up the hill a little more and she could see well past the gate to fields where sheep and cattle grazed, watched over by mounted riders. Past that she could even see the plume of smoke where the second ranch house, just as big as the first, had been built.

In the sixty years since they'd found the ranch, the four matriarchs had successfully raised seventeen children to adulthood, and now those children had over thirty children of their own. Some of their children had left, of course, to live in other settlements or marry into other tribes, but at least as many outsiders had married into theirs. And even those that were gone would occasionally pass on messages via the radio network, or return home after years away, with supposedly exotic gifts to show their love for the Grandmothers. (But although Yuri understood how difficult it had been to bring the fruit all the way up to northern Honshu, she'd never fully be able to think of pineapples as anything but ordinary.)

At the top of the path was a stone-paved clearing with metal tables and chairs, a view of the mountains to one side and the valley below to the other. Yuri spread a tablecloth out on one of the tables, then set out saucers and cups and plates and napkins and finally the tea and cookies, before sitting back and resting, waiting for her company.

She became aware of a faint buzzing on the horizon, and looked over towards the east, where a white contrail was slowly etching itself into the sky. She couldn't help smiling and clapping her hands - it wasn't the first jet they'd ever seen, but the renewed sight of them was still novel. And, while the nation of Japan was still slowly dusting itself off from the infection, largely limited to horses, old wind turbines and solar panels, it made her happy to think that someone, somewhere, was still keeping the torch of modern technology alive.

"You saw the jet?" Kurumi asked a few minutes later, walking up the hill with her naginata - now largely ceremonial - slung over her shoulder. She kissed Yuri quickly before she sat town across from her, and snatched up a single cookie before Yuri could slap her hand away, grinning as she did.

"Those are for the club, Kurumi!" Yuri scolded. "And yes I did - they're becoming a little more frequent these days, aren't they?"

Kurumi nodded, munching on the cookie. "They are. Looking at some of the old books, the kids and I think it might be the Americans flying a polar route to Korea or China. When Yuki's grandkid, whats-his-face, came back from the south, he did say the Taiwanese seemed to be doing pretty well..."

She reached for another cookie, but this time Yuri did successfully swat her hand away. "Yusaku. And yes, that wouldn't be surprising, I suppose."

Kurumi smiled and reached across the table to take Yuri's hand, and they sat like that for a few minutes, quietly enjoying the view, before Kurumi spoke up again. "Do... do you think she's actually coming today? I mean, I saw Miki leave to go to the house to pick her up, and some of the daughters were helping out too, but..."

Yuri smiled and squeezed her hand. "I think so. She has her good days and bad days, but today... well, the sun is shining and it's warmer, so that should cheer her up. In fact..." she said, standing and looking down the path, "Here they come now..."

Watching Miki come up the path, pushing Yuki in front of her, it suddenly struck Yuri that they'd all aged, but in some way, never changed. Miki was still tall and slender, and her hair had only gotten shorter and whiter over the years. Kurumi had aged like wood, becoming wrinkled but much, much tougher, and still a tomboy. Yuri had been curvy her entire adult life, and she still was, even as the curves had moved down more than she would have liked.

And Yuki... Yuki had always been petite and somewhat frail, even though that frailty hadn't stopped her from giving birth to six healthy children. But now, ever since the heart attack three months ago, she'd seemed to shrink even further, and become even weaker, needing a wheelchair to get around and help with everyday tasks.

Only her face was the same, with a hopeful, happy smile still spread wide across it. And Yuri and Kurumi couldn't help but smile back.

Miki helped square Yuki's chair with the table, and Yuri passed out cookies and tea to the table. Kurumi and Miki, who'd been up and working since dawn, devoured their cookies enthusiastically, asking for more, while Yuki slowly nibbled on hers, smiling and clearly happy to be following the conversation, but contributing little herself.

Still, the doctors they'd talked to about her condition said she might have months more life left, and the more active she stayed, the longer she'd have. So, even though the tradition had long since died off as work and children intervened, they'd started up club activity days again, getting together for drinks and snacks and various suggestions for silly, time-wasting trivialities. And even though she'd felt foolish to have the children see them in art contests, or obstacle courses, or races, Yuri had to admit to herself that, after sixty years, she'd earned a retirement, and there were far worse things to do than spend her time with her closest friends.

So they finished the tea and snacks, and enjoyed the sunlight for a moment, the cool breeze blunted by warm knit sweaters.

Finally, after appreciating the silence for a few minutes, Yuri turned to Yuki. "Well, Yuki-chan, the club is all here. What shall we do today?"

 **End.**


	28. Author

Author's note 2:

Wrapping this up, it occurs to me that some people following the story might be surprised by this ending - if so, sorry about that. But for the past five months I've been writing against an outline I completed a week after finishing the anime, so for me this has been a long time coming, and it seems like the best way to end things. If the anime was all about Yuki overcoming a trauma and the club learning to work together to survive, then this story was about watching that cooperation, and those relationships, deepen to get to a happy ending. While the story could go on for a long damn time - obviously there's fifty years between neo-Megumi and where we ended up - I don't know that it adds all that much.

These were good kids who went through a bad situation and came out ok. They made a family and lived happily ever after... although even that only gets you so many years.

Thanks to everybody who read along and gave me encouragement while I was putting this together - it's by far the longest thing I've ever written, and I don't know that I would have finished it without constant encouragement. And while I might return to writing in this fandom again if inspiration strikes - a second season of the anime would help there - I think I need to take a break. (I literally haven't watched any anime since I started work on this!)

Thanks again, cheers!

Author's note:

I usually prefer to have an entire story written before publishing, but I normally have a clear character arc that I want to communicate, and that's not the case here.

This anime stuck in my head like nothing has for a long time; it's one of the few things to get me to stop thinking about Steven Universe all the time, if that helps put things in perspective. The show itself does a LOT of things really, really well, but it's the characters that stick with me - they're arguably not as well drawn (narratively speaking) as they could be, but I did care about them, and want the best for them, in a way that I found really surprising.

Since there doesn't seem to be a season 2 on the horizon, and the manga is arguably a different beast from the TV show, I wanted to step in and give the characters the ending I thought they deserved. There'll be some deepening of the characters, some romance, but mostly this is just me being happy to spend more time with these characters and guide them to what I hope will be a satisfying conclusion. Since I'll be updating this periodically, if you enjoy what I'm doing, feedback is definitely appreciated. (And if you don't enjoy what I'm doing, that's cool too! As I said, this is somewhat more for my benefit than the audience's, this time around.)


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